João Lourenço made the appeal this Monday, at the opening of the parliamentary year in Luanda, expressing concern about the worsening and escalation of tension in the Middle East, since October 7th, after the "reprehensible attack on Israel that regrettably killed a high number of defenseless civilians".
Although he considered that Israel has the right to defend itself and protect the lives of its citizens, "the truth is that the same right also has the Palestinian people, who have been living for decades in a situation of continuous occupation and annexation of parts of their territory, unacceptable situation in the 21st century", he criticized.
He therefore called for "common sense" to prevail and the necessary restraint to avoid putting the lives of civilians on both sides at risk and a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, which he called a "true open-air prison reduced to rubble ".
A situation that "has persisted for years" and which recalls the need to implement "without further hesitation" the United Nations Security Council resolutions for the creation of the State of Palestine, continued the head of the executive.
"Let us have the courage to take this historic step, which presents itself as the only viable and definitive solution to put an end to a conflict that has been taking so many human lives", urged João Lourenço.
For the head of state, the inability demonstrated by the United Nations Security Council in the face of the need to resolve conflicts "reinforces the urgency of making reforms in this body".
João Lourenço also highlighted that Angola "has made its voice heard" in various regional and global spaces, defending peaceful solutions to international conflicts within the framework of the United Nations Charter.
He also lamented the outbreak of war in Ukraine "which opened space for a confluence between the humanitarian, food, economic and energy crises, unprecedented in the recent history of humanity" and addressed Angola's diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in the east of the Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Still with regard to Africa, he spoke about the conflict in Sudan, "a war of which little is said", but which should have already prompted the urgent call for an extraordinary summit of the African Union (AU) "due to the destabilization it could cause in a vast region of neighboring countries".
João Lourenço also highlighted the issue of terrorism and coups d'état in the Sahel and West Africa region, "which are also reasons to be permanently on the agenda" of the AU.
