The Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abdullah Shawesh has expressed pessimism over the success of the intervention of the Arab League/Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) mediation delegation in the ongoing Gaza war, insisting that the Western countries’ support for Israel may ultimately nullify whatever impact they could have made.
Shawesh, while addressing journalists in Abuja on the ongoing war between Israeli force and Hamas, said as much as he and the people of Palestine appreciated and commended the efforts of the group towards ensuring ceasefire, the Western countries had blinded support for Israel which would.make them thwart any effort to peaceful resolution.
The envoy, who asked if the West had ever called for ceasefire since the beginning of hostilities, lamented that
no fewer than 12,000 civilians had died since 7th October 2023 when Israel commenced the so-called retaliatory offences.
He said the majority of casualties had been children and women, while 2,000 persons were still missing.
Shawesh, while reacting to the mediation delegation, which included Nigeria, said all the diplomatic efforts were good and necessary but said the Western countries that supplied weapons and ammunition would not allow it to succeed.
He said: “The Arab League, the OIC, including our brother Nigeria and other international organisations established committees to stop what is happening in Gaza.”
He added: “The question is are the efforts enough?
“I’m not sure. I would like to ask you, you know, it’s not enough because who’s deciding this war? who is supplying the munitions, who is supplying the weapons to the Israeli, who should start talking about the ceasefire?
“Unfortunately, those countries, I mean, the western countries did not utter any single word of ceasefire.
“They declared that ceasefire was not part of what is on the table.
“This is the real problem. What the Arab League, the OIC and Nigeria and other respectful intergovernmental organisations are doing is highly appreciated by us. ”
He also accused the Western media of spreading lies in their reportage of events.
The envoy also said that the excuse of Hamas using hospitals as tunnel were all tissues of lies.
