{"id":4874,"date":"2023-03-01T09:26:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T09:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=4874"},"modified":"2023-03-24T09:30:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T09:30:03","slug":"israel-slams-delegations-removal-from-african-union-summit-2023-blaming-iranian-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=4874","title":{"rendered":"Israel Slams Delegation\u2019s Removal From African Union Summit 2023 Blaming Iranian Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Alberto Arellano<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Israeli delegation was ejected on Saturday from the African Union\u2019s annual summit in Ethiopia, a move the Israeli Foreign Ministry blamed \u201cextremist\u201d countries influenced by Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsrael looks harshly upon the incident in which the [Foreign Ministry] Deputy Director for Africa, Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li, was removed from the African Union hall despite her status as an accredited observer with entrance badges,\u201d the ministry said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is sad to see that the African Union has been taken hostage by a small number of extremist countries such as Algeria and South Africa, driven by hatred and controlled by Iran. We call on the African countries to stand against these actions that harm the organization of the African Union itself and the entire continent,\u201d added the statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Foreign Ministry said that the charge d\u2019affaires at South Africa\u2019s embassy in Israel would be summoned for a reprimand.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s ruling party has been a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, according to Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe attempt to cancel Israel\u2019s observer status has no basis in the organization\u2019s laws,\u201d said the ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebba Kalondo, the spokesperson for the African Union\u2019s commission chairman, said Bar-Li had been removed because she was not the accredited Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia, the official who was expected, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel was formally granted observer status in July 2021, and many non-African countries and groups hold the designation, \u201cPalestine\u201d being one of them. Israel had been trying to win back the status for 20 years, since it lost it when the Organization of African Unity was disbanded in 2002 to make way for its replacement organization, the African Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its meeting last year, the 55-member A.U. pushed off<\/a> a vote over Israel\u2019s observer status and instead set up a committee to examine the matter, whose report was due to be presented at the current summit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil the A.U. takes a decision on whether to grant Israel observer status, you cannot have the country sitting and observing,\u201d Clayson Monyela, head of public diplomacy in South Africa\u2019s department of international relations, told Reuters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh addressed<\/a> last year\u2019s summit, saying that \u201cIsrael should never be rewarded for its violation and for the apartheid regime it does impose on the Palestinian people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made enhancing Jerusalem\u2019s relations with Africa a main foreign policy goal. In early February, the prime minister dedicated<\/a> the Embassy of the Republic of Chad in Israel together with visiting president of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same day, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen traveled to Khartoum, where he met with General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, leader of Sudan\u2019s transitional government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon Cohen\u2019s return to Israel, he announced<\/a> that the two countries would sign a peace agreement this year in Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s visit to Sudan lays the foundation for a historic peace agreement with a strategic Arab and Muslim country,\u201d said Cohen. \u201cThe peace agreement between Israel and Sudan will promote regional stability and contribute to the national security of the State of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khartoum first agreed to normalize relations with Israel in October 2020 under the Trump administration, in exchange for Washington removing Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. In January 2021, it became the fourth country to sign onto the Abraham Accords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco have also joined the accords, although the current development with Sudan is being billed as a peace agreement in the vein of those forged between Israel and Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Published without changes from Zenger News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Alberto Arellano An Israeli delegation was ejected on Saturday from the African Union\u2019s annual summit in Ethiopia, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,8,25],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-4874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express","category-online-newspaper","category-zenger-zone","tag-africa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4878,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874\/revisions\/4878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}