Cairo, Russia: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh put forward an initiative to establish the union of Arab nations similar to the European Union, the country’s SABA news agency said. “Yemen now presents an initiative to activate the Arab action through the establishment of a union of Arab countries,” he told the annual Arab League summit which gathered in the Libyan city of Surt on Saturday.
“If the European and African peoples have had strong unions despite the variations in language or history among them, the peoples of the Arab nation have a lot of similarities and strong links of the religion, language, history and common aspirations. So the establishment of an Arab Union will achieve strength desired by the Arabs and ensure the development of the joint Arab work,” he said.
The president said such union would be able to effectively respond to “Israeli arrogance.”
“The Arab countries had made many concessions but Israel always proves its arrogance through unilateral steps including its belief in using force to deal with the issues. The Israeli arrogance and refusal to all peace efforts are driving us to a deadlock,” Saleh said.
Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been the main obstacle to reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Under the internationally agreed roadmap for Middle East peace, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement construction activity and remove unauthorized outposts built since 2001 from Palestinian territories.
