Arab Ministerial Committee rejects undermining of Al Quds’ legal status

Cairo: The Arab Ministerial Committee tasked with international action to confront Israel s illegal policies and measures in occupied Jerusalem, durin...

Cairo: The Arab Ministerial Committee tasked with international action to confront Israel’s illegal policies and measures in occupied Jerusalem, during its tenth meeting today at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League in Cairo with the participation of the State of Qatar, reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, and that East Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine. The committee rejected any attempt to undermine the Palestinian right to sovereignty over it, as well as any unilateral aggressions or measures affecting the legal status of Jerusalem.

The delegation of the State of Qatar to the committee meeting was headed by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi.

In a statement following its meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the 164th ordinary session of the Arab League Council at the ministerial level, the committee stressed the necessity of adhering to the principle of a just and comprehensive peace conditional on ending the occupation, and the establishment of an independent, sovereign, geographically contiguous, and viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital along the Jun. 4, 1967 borders, on the basis of the two-state solution in accordance with international law, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the relevant international references. The committee expressed its condemnation of measures aimed at isolating Jerusalem and restricting its residents, most recently the approval of the settlement plan in Area E1, intended to besiege the Old City and cut it off from its Palestinian surroundings, in an attempt to undermine the establishment of the Palestinian state, which constitutes a blatant assault on the Palestinian people’s right to realize their independent state.

The committee also condemned all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition and the historical and religious character of Jerusalem, as well as the status of the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, affirming that such practices and violations are in contravention of international law and legitimate international resolutions.

It also condemned the unprecedented escalation in Israeli violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif and its Islamic identity, including incursions by extremist Israeli ministers and officials, their racist inciteful statements, and the Israeli escalatory measures aimed at altering the existing historical and legal status of Jerusalem and its holy sites, and Israel’s condemned attempts to impose practices intended to enforce temporal and spatial division in Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif.