Al-Maliki Calls on European Countries to Recognize State of Palestine

Cairo, 21 Rabi’ul Awwal 1438/21 December 2016 (MINA) – Palestine’s Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki has called upon all European countries that have not yet recognized the Palestinian state to accelerate announcement of their recognition of Palestine.

In his speech at the closed session of the Fourth Arab and European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers meeting, held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Tuesday, Al-Maliki called on the EU to work jointly to expedite the start of the formal consultations to reach a complete partnership agreement between Palestine and the EU bloc, which enhances the legal status of the Palestinian State.

Al-Maliki said that Israel has incessantly defied international law and international humanitarian law, in addition to its disregard for the will and consensus of the international community, which has reached intolerable limits, IINA News reported.

He added that “at the time we see the international welcoming of convening an international peace conference on the Middle East, called for by the French initiative, Israel insists on rejecting and undermining it.

The Palestinian diplomat said that Israeli attitudes toward the French initiative were negative, but rather hostile, from the first day of its announcement.

These attitudes categorically prove that Israeli has no intention to resolve the conflict through the internationally recognized diplomatic means and political channels.

He noted that while Israel is sticking to its unilateral policy of constructing settlements and racist policies, it is trying to dye the Palestinian diplomatic moves in the international arena as unilateral policies, although the orientation of the Palestinian leadership does not contradict with the international law and norms or the solution of the conflict through negotiations.

Al-Maliki stressed that the inability of the international community has encouraged the Israeli Knesset to submit a bill aimed at legalizing the settlements and their annexation to the rest of Israel’s territory.

He valued the EU’s issuance of guidelines that prohibit loans or aid of any kind to Israeli companies operating in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.(T/P008/R07)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)