Cuba expresses concern for deterioration of the situation in the Middle East

Nueva York, 22 January 2020. Ambassador Oscar León González, Chargé d´Affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, deplored the inability of the UN Security Council to put an end to the Israeli military aggression and occupation of the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, in accordance with its resolution 2334 (2016). During a debate of the Security Council on this topic, he condemned that the UN main organ remains silent while Israel consolidates, with impunity, its policy of expansion of the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory and threatens to annex the Palestinian territories of the Jordan Valley and other regions of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Cuban diplomat stated that the repeated obstruction by the United States prevents the Security Council from condemning the escalation of violence and the tragic events that took place in the Gaza Strip since 30 March 2018.

He recalled that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East finds itself in a precarious situation as a result of the withdrawal of the United States financial support. Likewise, he reiterated Cuba´s rejection of the so-called "deal of the century", drawn up by the current United States Administration, since it does not envisage the creation of a Palestinian State, ignoring the two-State solution, which has been historically supported by the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other international actors.

León González expressed Cuba´s unwavering solidarity with the Government and people of Palestine and the support for Palestine's entry as a full member into the United Nations. Cuba has historically supported a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which enables the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and to establish an independent and sovereign State on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and which guarantees the right of return for the refugees.

The High Representative of Cuba strongly condemned the U.S. airstrike of Baghdad airport in Iraq and the targeted assassination using missiles, which are a clear violation of the International Law and the sovereignty of that country. He argued that these aggressive, unilateral and unjustified actions by the United States pose a serious escalation in the Middle East region, where a conflict of major proportions can break out with unpredictable loss of human life and consequences for world peace and stability.

Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations