ALGIERS (Dispatches) – Algiers has reached an agreement with 13 other African countries to expel the Zionist regime from the African Union as an observer member, Algerian media reported.
Algeria has officially begun the process of forming an African group to reject the occupying regime’s membership in the African Union, the online newspaper Rai Al-Youm reported on Saturday.
Algeria’s goal is announced to be preserving the principles of the African Union and to support the Arab state of Palestine.
According to the report, South Africa, Tunisia, Eritrea, Senegal, Tanzania, Niger, the archipelago of Qamar, Gabon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and the Seychelles have all agreed with the decision.
Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra has stressed that Algerian diplomacy would not back down from the move by the Zionist regime and the African Union which was taken without consulting members.
The foreign minister added these diplomatic moves are in fact a reaction to the occupying regime’s membership in the African Union as an observer member and that this is a development that Tel Aviv diplomats have been working on for years.
The head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement hit out at the African Union’s decision to grant observer status to the regime, stating that the move contradicts all values and principles on which the African bloc is founded.
Ismail Haniyeh, in a letter addressed to Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the AU Commission, appreciated the historical positions of the African Union in support of Palestinian rights and their struggle to achieve freedom and independence.
Haniyeh pointed out that the 55-member organization is a reputable body that has long defended the rights of African nations to self-determination, freedom and independence, and stands with Palestinians and their just cause against the aggression and terrorism of the regime.
“It represents a severe blow to the Palestinian nation and their legitimate national rights as they struggle to get rid of the occupying Israeli regime,” Haniyeh said.