Palestinian cause remains perennial concern: Kuwait
Speaker calls for meeting legitimate demands
CAIRO, Feb 1, (KUNA): Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Sabah said on Saturday that the “Palestinian cause” remains the Arab world’s perennial concern.
Leading Kuwait’s delegation to a meeting of foreign ministers from Arab League member states in the Egyptian capital, he said Kuwait studied the US vision of Middle East peace and appreciates its efforts to solve one of the world’s most lingering conflicts, but any solution needs to protect the rights of Palestinians and adhere to international laws.
Citing the two-state solution based on the borders in place before the 1967 war as the only feasible way out of the conflict, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said any solution should not allow Israel the right to “threaten” Arab and Islamic presence in the holy city of Jerusalem.
He emphasized that Kuwait will always stand by the Palestinian people, urging the international community to ultimately recognize an independent state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Trump on Tuesday suggested creating a Palestinian state as part of a Middle East peace plan dubbed the “deal of the century,” albeit with strict provisos allowing Israel to maintain control over disputed West Bank settlements.
The plan drew stern condemnation from across the wider Arab region, as the Palestinians deem the proposal as largely biased towards Israel.
National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim said “the so-called Deal of Century and marketing a proposed peace in the Middle East will not succeed as long as the settlement is not equivalent and does not meet the legitimate and fair demands of the Palestinians that are derived from relevant UN resolutions.
“Any international or regional efforts towards peace are appreciated in principle, but peace should be genuine and fair,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
The cornerstone of any talks on the Middle East peace must be based on meeting the full rights of Palestinian people, and ending the occupation.
Otherwise, the talks on the peace will be closer to absurdity and wasting time, he stated.
No settlement will be accepted without setting up a fully sovereign and free Palestinian state, and meeting the Palestinians’ demands in terms of sovereignty, borders, Jerusalem, water, refugees as well as eliminating all settlements built since 1967, he pointed out.
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory Michael Lynk said on Friday that US President Donald Trump plan’s on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a lopsided proposal entirely in favor of one side to the conflict.
“What the Trump plan offers is a one and a half state solution,” Lynk said in a press release.
The UN official described the proposed Palestinian state as a “Potemkin state” that lacks most of the commonly understood attributes of sovereignty beyond the right to fly its flag and issue stamps.
“(This state) would become an entirely new entity in the annals of modern political science,” he said.
Lynk pointed out that the US plan is not a recipe for a just and durable peace but rather endorses the creation of a 21st century Bantustan in the Middle East.
“The Palestinian statelet envisioned by the American plan would be scattered archipelagos of non-contiguous territory completely surrounded by Israel, with no external borders, no control over its airspace, no right to a military to defend its security, no geographic basis for a viable economy, no freedom of movement and with no ability to complain to international judicial forums against Israel or the United States,” he wondered.