Arab Ministerial: We will not accept a peace deal without Palestinian rights

The Arab foreign ministers at an emergency meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sunday rejected any peace deal that does not comply with the rights of the Palestinian people and is not in line with the international references, a few weeks before the upcoming announcement of the US administration's plan for peace in the Middle East.

The Arab ministers stressed in their final statement that such a deal (in reference to the upcoming US peace plan) will not succeed in achieving lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East if legitimate Palestinian rights are not met.

The Arab ministerial meeting, which was attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, stressed that at the top of Palestinian rights is self-determination and the establishment of an independent state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees.

Abbas asked
The Council of the League of Arab States at the ministerial level held its emergency meeting at the invitation of President Abbas to discuss the latest developments in the Palestinian issue, especially those aimed at imposing illegal solutions that claim Israeli sovereignty over key parts of the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Arab Golan "He said.

Abbas said earlier during the ministerial meeting that Israel did not respect any of the agreements that were made between it and the Palestinians, saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not believe in peace.

"The Palestinian government will move on all Arab and international fronts to defend Palestinian rights," Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Abu Rudeina told reporters. "We will not allow the plot of the century to pass."

Jared Kouchner, adviser and brother-in-law of US President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that the US peace plan to present a vision for a solution to the Palestinian issue would be announced after Ramadan.

safety net
The Arab Ministerial Meeting committed to implementing the resolution of the Arab Summit held in Tunis last March, which aims at activating a financial safety net worth 100 million dollars per month to support the Palestinian Authority, which suffers from financial hardship due to the occupation measures and the confiscation of PA revenues.

The statement also called on the various Palestinian factions and forces to speed up the completion of national reconciliation, enable the government to assume full responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, and hold general elections as soon as possible.

Palestinian reconciliation has been stalled for several months after deep differences between the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on the interpretation of the terms of an agreement signed by the two movements in Cairo in October 2017.