"From this city of Luanda, the voice of the world's parliamentarians will be heard calling for an end to the conflict in Sudan, Ukraine and the Middle East. It is urgent that the guns stop and give way to diplomacy so that the lives of civilians, children, women and the elderly and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in these conflicts", urged João Lourenço, at the opening of the 147th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
He addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting the diplomatic efforts of world leaders to ensure that humanitarian law is respected and that populations are not denied the most basic rights of citizens, even in a situation of war.
"Even if this immediate objective is achieved to minimize the pain and suffering of the Israeli and Palestinian people, there is every need to delve into the root causes of the conflict that has lasted for more than seventy-five years and which has left millions of Palestinians landless, without a homeland and without the possibility of returning to the land that always belonged to them", warned the chief executive.
João Lourenço also referred to the United Nations Security Council resolutions, which recognize the Palestinian people's "inalienable right" to live in the State of Palestine, side by side with the State of Israel.
"Only the effective creation of the State of Palestine will put a definitive end to this cycle of hatred and violence that the world has watched helplessly for decades and that has already shed a lot of blood from Palestinian and Israeli citizens (...). It will not be the The cannons that will bring definitive peace to the Middle East will be diplomacy", he warned.
João Lourenço highlighted that the Inter-Parliamentary Union is a "mechanism for intervention and advocacy on the main issues of global interest, through the exercise of parliamentary diplomacy within the United Nations system and the Member States".
Its status as a permanent observer member of the United Nations system is, he added, "the recognition of the mission and contribution of the Inter-Parliamentary Union to stability, fraternity and solidarity among the peoples of the entire world".
He also highlighted that the foreign policy of the Republic of Angola reserves a wide space for intervention for parliamentary diplomacy and welcomed the organization of this 147th Assembly of the IPU in Angola, considering that "it is a tribute to the dynamism of Angolan parliamentary diplomacy alongside international organizations and countries in the global interparliamentary network".
For João Lourenço, the Inter-Parliamentary Union has established itself as the privileged stage of parliamentary diplomacy: "Therefore, it is our desire that, at this event and in specialized meetings, you can deepen the debate, identifying weaknesses, progress and the main challenges, thus surpassing the mechanisms of interparliamentary cooperation and the bases for multilateral exchange that unite efforts in favor of the prosperity of the people of the world", he stressed.
He spoke about democracy in Angola as "a process of constant evolution and overcoming", pointing out national reconciliation and political stability as the "greatest achievements of our people",
He also said that he has intensified efforts to find definitive solutions to normalize some of the conflicts on the African continent, through intense diplomatic actions and that "other worrying and unfavorable situations" for world security have remained, namely the war in Europe and the proliferation of conflicts in other latitudes, the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, etc.
Moments before, the speech by the president of the IPU, Duarte Pacheco, aroused the irritation of delegations from some countries, including Israel and Iran, with indignant parliamentarians shouting "shame on you".
