Why Nigeria is participating in Joint Arab-Islamic Summit – Official

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said Nigeria is participating in the joint Arab-Islamic Summit because of its proximity and longstanding relationship with the Middle East.

The summit will commence on Monday, 11 November 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

During the summit, President Tinubu is expected to address the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict, and emphasise Nigeria’s call for an immediate ceasefire and the urgent need for a peaceful resolution.

Mr Idris said Nigeria’s position is to call for peaceful resolution because the conflict can never end on the war front. “We must come to find a diplomatic solution and this is exactly what we are seeking here,” the minister told journalists in Riyadh.

He said Nigeria is seizing the moment again to participate in the summit and to lend its voice as an important player on the global stage to ensure that all countries of the world have a peaceful resolution on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Many experts have said a lasting end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only come through a two-state solution.

Mr Idris said Nigeria has been consistent on its call for a “two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security within very secure borders for both countries.” He said Nigeria “feels like that is the only way forward; we must go back to the root of the matter.”

“Of course this conflict is rooted in the fact that both countries feel that there is something that they are losing so Nigeria feels that unless this solution is found and unless there is a diplomatic solution to it, this conflict may engulf the entire region and in effect it’s also, you know, may engulf including the entire world.”

A Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 escalated the conflict and led to the death of about 1,200 people while Hamas took about 251 others hostage.

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Since then, Israel has besieged Gaza, killing more than 41,000 people, majority of them children and women.

Israel has vowed to continue its attack on Gaza until Hamas, which governed Gaza, is eradicated, despite global calls for a ceasefire.

Gaza also faces a dire humanitarian emergency, with a report from an international authority on hunger warning that “famine was imminent” in northern Gaza and that escalation of the war could push half of the territory’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.

“Unless there is peace in the Middle East there’s no way Nigeria will not also have issues,” Mr Idris said.