AMMAN: Jordan said on Saturday the Arab League would seek international recognition of the Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital after Washington recognized the Holy City as Israel’s capital.
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi made the announcement at a joint news conference with Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit after talks in Amman on the status of Jerusalem.
The talks were attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority as well as by the United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs.
“There is a political decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and we will strive to reach an international political decision to recognize a Palestinian state... with (east) Jerusalem as its capital,” Safadi said.
Abul Gheit said an expanded meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss Jerusalem would be held at the end of the month.
US President Donald Trump’s controversial decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital sparked protests in Arab and Muslim countries and was rejected in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution.
Jerusalem’s status is among the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967 and later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognized by the international community.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its united capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Safadi said Arabs have three main goals, including invalidating Trump’s decision.
“According to international law, Jerusalem is an occupied land,” he said.
Earlier Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II met the Arab diplomats and said “the question of Jerusalem must be resolved within the framework of a just and lasting peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, and is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
The kingdom has been rocked by anti-US and anti-Israeli protests in the wake of Trump’s decision, and has accused the US president of violating international law.
Meanwhile, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir also met with his Jordanian counterpart Al-Safadi on the sidelines and discussed bilateral relations binding the two countries and means to promote them in all domains.
They also reviewed the latest Arab developments, especially the situation of Jerusalem.
Al-Jubeir asserted Saudi support of the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim stance, regarding Jerusalem, announcing that the Saudi Kingdom’s position over the Palestinian cause is unflinching, notably, considering Jerusalem as the capital of the proposed Palestinian state.
He concluded by expressing satisfaction over the outcomes of the six Arab foreign ministers’ meeting in Amman, indicating it was constructive and culminated in significant outcomes.
Arabs seek recognition for Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem: Jordan
Arabs seek recognition for Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem: Jordan
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
