AhlulBayt News Agency: While the Turkish and Egyptian parliaments are making time to consider arrangements for providing military and security assistance to Saudi Arabia, the people of Gaza continue to endure relentless bombardment, blockade and starvation. This contradiction once again highlights the gap between rhetoric about Islamic unity and the actual conduct of regional political institutions.
Yemeni writer and political analyst Ali al-Darwani has questioned the priorities of the Turkish and Egyptian parliaments in an article, criticising their active engagement with Saudi Arabia's security concerns while remaining silent and inactive in the face of the ongoing killings and blockade of the people of Gaza.
He questioned why the security of governments is given priority while efforts to save Palestinian lives are pushed into the background.
Meetings in the Turkish parliament to discuss military and security assistance to Saudi Arabia, alongside deliberations in the Egyptian parliament on special security arrangements for the kingdom, are taking place at a time when neither parliament has held a comparable emergency session to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza or consider measures to stop the killing of Palestinians.
This is happening while Gaza's population continues to face mass killings, a devastating blockade and starvation, with little effective practical assistance from Muslim countries.
The difference in the speed and seriousness of these responses has raised serious questions about the priorities of regional political and military institutions. These institutions demonstrate the capacity to make decisions to protect security agreements and government interests, yet fail to show the same level of urgency in responding to the suffering of ordinary people in Palestine and Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has its own military forces, advanced weapons systems and extensive military and security cooperation with Western countries. Nevertheless, considerable attention is being devoted to parliamentary discussions and military arrangements concerning its security.
Meanwhile, people in Yemen and Palestine, particularly women and children, continue to face attacks, killings and displacement without receiving adequate and effective assistance.
This situation raises a fundamental question about the concept of collective security in the Arab and Islamic world: Why are the security of governments, oil resources and energy supply routes prioritised in military cooperation, while the lives of ordinary people and the rights of populations across the region are not given equal importance?
The problem is not limited to a shortage of weapons or military equipment. It also concerns the objectives and priorities established by military and political institutions. Armed forces mobilised to protect governments and economic interests appear to play no effective role in addressing the killing and displacement of civilians in Palestine and Yemen.
The situations in Gaza and Yemen have exposed the gap between declarations of Islamic unity and mutual cooperation and the actual conduct of regional political and military institutions. They demonstrate that, under current political arrangements, decisions to protect government interests and security are taken swiftly, while assistance to ordinary people trapped in war and under blockade continues to remain a low priority.
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