AMMAN - Arab states will soon embark on a diplomatic drive to persuade the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said. Safadi was speaking at a news conference in Amman, Jordan yesterday as six Arab foreign ministers met in the Jordanian capital to follow up on earlier decisions taken by the Arab League to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s move in December to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a decision that overturned decades of U.S. policy on the Middle East.
A committee made up of Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinians and headed by Jordan was set up after an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo shortly after Trump’s decision that called on Washington to abandon its decision. The Arab League said at the time the move would spur violence throughout the region and described Trump’s announcement as a “dangerous violation of international law” which had no legal impact. Safadi said the ministers would recommend a series of moves to a full ministerial meeting of the Arab League due later this month.(FA)