Statement on the U.S. Presidential Announcement Regarding Jerusalem

President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel not only contradicts international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and dozens of United Nations Security Council Resolutions. In a fundamental way, it threatens the security and stability of the region, undermines American national needs and key U.S. foreign policy goals, and gives the lie to those the world over who have an interest in a secure and recognized Israel living in mutual recognition with and alongside a sovereign and secure State of Palestine.

The decision rewards Israel’s continued violent appropriation of Palestinian land and resources. It de facto legitimizes Israel’s subjugation and dehumanizing occupation of the Palestinian Arab Christian and Muslim people. It pulls the rug out from beneath what little was left of any American pretense at an honest and effective approach to an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord with Jerusalem as the national capital of both peoples. In so doing, it antagonizes allies, provokes partners, galvanizes extremists, and inflames anti-U.S. sentiments across the globe.

The United States’ friends and allies, including those not only in the Arab world but in virtually every other corner of the earth as well, have clearly warned about the consequences of such a move. They have underscored the sensitivity of the question of Jerusalem to billions worldwide. Given the importance of the city to all three of the monotheistic faiths – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — America’s decision undermines its stated efforts to bring a fair and viable solution to the seemingly intractable conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

President Trump’s decision moves the Palestinian people further from a fair and just end to their illegal occupation. Ultimately, it undermines efforts to achieve the reality of physical and military security, political stability, and a degree of peace without which there can be no realistic prospect, let alone any likely achievement, of sustained prosperity.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit and nongovernmental organization, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations as a matter of policy takes no position on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for office.

Dr. John Duke Anthony Meets With Mahmoud Abbas

National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Founding President & CEO Dr. John Duke Anthony met privately with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today following Abbas’ visit with President Trump at The White House.

Dr. John Duke Anthony with Mahmoud Abbas.

Dr. John Duke Anthony with Mahmoud Abbas in Washington, D.C., on May 3, 2017.

 

“The Palestinian Future” – 24th Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference

Session on The Palestinian Future with H.E. Ambassador Maen Areikat, Mr. Matthew Reynolds, Dr. Jim Zogby, Dr. Imad Harb, Dr. Tom Mattair, and Ms. Randa Fahmy from the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’ 24th Annual Arab-US Policymakers’ Conference, “U.S.-Arab Relations at a Crossroads: What Paths Forward?,” on October 15, 2015, in Washington, DC.

Watch on C-Span

Listen to Podcast (.mp3)

Read Transcript (.pdf)

The Consolidation of a New Arab Political Order

Operation Decisive Storm Coalition Forces' spokesman Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri provides a briefing on developments in the campaign.

Operation Decisive Storm Coalition Forces’ spokesman Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri provides a briefing on developments in the campaign. Photo: Saudi Press Agency.

While the Saudi-led Operation Decisive Storm against the Yemeni Houthis and their allies continues and its long-term results are so far unknown, it is not pre-mature to project that a new Arab political order is being consolidated. Its elements include a firm and sustainable commitment to fight extremism and sectarianism, bring order and stability to the heart of the Arab world – namely, Syria and Iraq – and design, chart, and lead an independent course for the protection of pan-Arab national interests.

Such an order has a leader in the collective energies and capabilities of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Saudi Arabia as a first among equals, and essential assistance from such countries as Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Indeed, to assure its collective interests, arrive at a hoped-for peaceful stability, and sustain much needed political, economic, and social development, the Arab world must coalesce around a strong political order that can utilize its capacities and permissible international conditions to achieve what it needs and deserves. Importantly, the consolidated new Arab political order appears to emphasize essential principles that require astute judgment, committed resources, and continuous vigilance.

Fighting Extremism and Sectarianism

The status quo states of the new Arab order are cognizant of the threats represented by the plethora of extremist groups operating at the heart of the Arab world. In Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has staked a claim in Hadramawt Province abutting the Saudi Arabian border after it lost its bases in Shabwa and Abyan to the west. In Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group has erased the borders between the two countries in a mission to re-establish an imagined and borderless Islamic Caliphate while al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front controls strategic areas of Syria. Both organizations are serious threats to Lebanon and its pluralist political society.

In Libya, the Islamic State group, al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar ash-Shari’a, and a sundry of militias have settled, and promise to both keep the country unstable and use it as a base to spread chaos and mayhem elsewhere. In Tunisia and Egypt, jihadist extremists are waging a war of attrition against state security institutions. The actors of the consolidating Arab political order must know full well that they alone can address this threat in a fashion that combines a sense of shared responsibility for common interests and an attempt at forging an independent course that serves such interests.

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The Palestinian Future – 2014 Arab-US Policymakers Conference

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations23rd Annual Arab U.S.-Policymakers Conference included a session on “The Palestinian Future” that featured Dr. Tom Mattair, H.E. Ambassador Maen Areikat, Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd, Mr. Bill Corcoran, Mr. Matthew Reynolds, and Mr. Yousef Munayyer.

An audio and video recording of the session as well as a link to the transcript are available below. Videos of the entire 2014 conference are available on YouTube and podcasts of the conference are available through iTunes and FeedBurner.

 

 

Transcript (.pdf)

Audio only:

 

Arab League Ambassador Mohammed Al Hussaini Al Sharif Appears on “This is America & The World”

H.E. Ambassador Mohammed Al Hussaini Al Sharif, Chief Representative of the League of Arab States to the United States, former Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Canada and Turkey, and former Head of the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Houston, recently appeared on Episode 1801 of THIS IS AMERICA & THE WORLD with Dennis Wholey. The program is a weekly, international affairs television series produced in Washington, New York City, and in countries around the world, and distributed nationally on PBS. On This is America & The World, “Dennis Wholey sets out to explore the cultural, social and political lives” of “high profile individuals that shape our world.” The interview with H.E. Ambassador Al Sharif “focuses on the various sources of extreme tension throughout the Middle East and touches on Islam, ISIS and recent developments in Israel and Palestine.”