By Samir Bennis
By Samir Bennis
Morocco World News
New York, August 16, 2011
The Monitoring Committee of the Arab Peace Initiative will hold on August 23 in Doha, a meeting at the level of foreign ministers, said the Arab League on Monday. This is the third such meeting in two months, which is considerably more frequent than normal and is indicative of the urgency that Arab states are assigning to the issue of recognition of Palestine.
Chaired by Qatar, the meeting will be held with the participation of the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas and Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil al Arabi, says the same source.
In a press statement, deputy Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Ben Helli, said that this meeting would be held at the request of Palestine and would focus on developments in the Palestinian question.
The meeting will also discuss ways to support the Arab move to address the United Nations in September to allow the recognition of the State of Palestine on the borders of June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The same source added that the Arab side has completed all legal steps and procedures to achieve this goal.
Arab countries have decided to approach the UN for recognition of an independent Palestinian state following the failure of direct peace talks between Palestinian and Israelis, suspended a few weeks after they were launched in late 2010 after the Israeli side dismissed American and Palestinian demands calling on it to extend a freeze on the establishment of new settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
As recently as last week, Israel announced the building of 4,300 new homes in East Jerusalem. This decision earned Tel Aviv much criticism from the United Nations, which described this decision as “provocative action undermines ongoing efforts by the international community to bring the parties back to negotiations”.
In related news, the UN and its partner involved in breathing a new life into the stalled peace process called this decision as “contrary to international law”.
“Unilateral action by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community,” the Quartet, comprising the UN, the European Union (EU), the United States and Russia, said in a statement issued today
The Arab League issued a statement today where it condemned the Israeli decision to continue its settlements policy and noted that these activities are designed to undermine the two-state solution and the Arab and international efforts to calm the situation.
Editing by Ahmad Azizi
