Arab League to push for renewed Palestinian statehood bid

The Arab League yesterday authorised its members to seek international support for another UN resolution to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

The decision was taken at the end of an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.

The League formed a committee consisting of the Foreign Ministers of Kuwait, Mauritania, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League to “decide on the necessary contacts and consultations to mobilise international support for the resubmission of a new Arab draft resolution before the UN Security Council to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and reaching a final settlement.”

The UN Security Council voted against a Palestinian draft resolution to end the Israeli occupation in December.

The foreign ministers stressed that they adhere to the Arab peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 which calls on Israel to withdraw from the Arab territories it occupied in 1967 in return for normalising relations with Arab states.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said during the opening session: “We want to return to the Security Council to obtain a resolution that ends the occupation.”

The League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said what is needed in any future move at the Security Council “is not only success in obtaining a resolution, but to obtain a new executable resolution”.