Palestine requested today the general secretariat of the Arab League to hold an extraordinary emergency summit at the level of the foreign ministers, aimed at discussing potential action that the Arab states may take in response to Israel’s threats of annexing parts of the occupied West Bank.
Palestine’s Permanent Representative Office at the Arab League said in a statement that at the orders of President Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, it has requested the extraordinary Arab League meeting in response to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement in which he said that it was Israel’s decision whether to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, and that the US will offer its views on this to the new Israeli government in private.
Diab al-Louh, Palestine’s ambassador to Egypt and its permanent representative at the Arab League, said any Israeli move of annexing parts or all of the occupied West Bank to its sovereignty will be a blatant violation of the resolutions of the international community.
The ambassador stressed that the Palestinian leadership, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, has been put on high alert to confront any Israeli escalation in this regard. He called on the international community and the UN Security Council in particular to “shoulder their responsibilities to end Israel’s abuse of Palestinian rights.”
In the meantime, Louh said the extraordinary Arab summit will ask member states to provide a safety net for the Palestinian government to be able to cope with the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic that has affected Palestine for the second month.
