Arab foreign ministers to meet in Amman Saturday

AMMAN — Six Arab foreign ministers will convene in Amman on Saturday to look into progress made in response to the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a source said Wednesday.

In addition to Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, the top diplomats of Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco are expected to attend the meeting, along with Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the source added.

The officials are members of a ministerial delegation formed by the Arab League during its emergency meeting in December to follow up on joint Arab action designed to counter the US move, said the source.

The ministers will look into the consequences of the US decision and pan-Arab efforts to preserve Jerusalem’s Arab character and its historic and legal status, the source added.

At their Cairo meeting in December, the Arab foreign ministers slammed the US decision.

They looked into a unified response to Trump’s decision, which sparked outrage and protests across the Arab world, demanding that the US rescinds the decision and calling it a “grave” development that puts the US on the same side as the “occupation”, in violation of international law.

Egypt, on behalf of the Arab bloc, filed a draft resolution with the UN Security Council to prohibit any such move that would alter the status quo of Jerusalem as an occupied land, but Washington vetoed the motion, prompting Arab states to take it to the UN General Assembly, where the resolution won by a massive vote of 128-129.

Jordan is the current president of the Arab summit, which was held in Amman in March last year.