Arab League Slams Washington for Embassy Shift Coinciding with Al-Nakba

Cairo, MINA – The Arab League on Saturday decried in strong terms a declaration by the U.S. State Department to transfer the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by middle of May, coinciding with the 1948 “Al-Nakba” anniversary, KUNA reported.

The US Administration decision is a new ring of a chain of provocative and erroneous resolutions, ongoing since December, Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abul-Gheit said in a statement, warning that Washington’s bias approach might waste the last hope for peace and co-existence between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Transferring the embassy on the same date of Al-Nakba anniversary reveals full bias for Israel and lack of rational reading of the nature and history of the conflict in the region that began 70 years ago, he said.

Washington, with this bias policy, is no longer entitled to sponsor the peace process in the region, he added.

Shifting the US embassy to Jerusalem will have no legal power and will not affect Jerusalem’s status as an occupied city, Abul-Gheit cautioned further.

Majority of nations of the globe have rebuffed the American decision, in a rare precedent, reflecting unanimity of the international community, Abul Gheit said, stressing that the question of Jerusalem cannot be taken out of the negotiating process.

The American decision, he elaborates, breaches Security Council resolutions 476 and 478 (1980).

Arab States are determined to counter negative repercussions of this decision and ensure no other nation take an identical decision; therefore, rendering “the American measure isolated, with no effects except for denouncing the state that has taken it.”

Al-Nakba (in Arabic catastrophe) anniversary alludes to proclaiming Israel in 1948, an event that coincided and followed exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland to neighboring Arab countries. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)