Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday after reports emerged that Arab ministers planning to attend had been stopped.
The delegation included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said. The ministers would require Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
[ Entire Gaza population at risk of famine, says UNOpens in new window ]
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not co-operate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Palestinian Authority official said the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead was under discussion.
The move comes in advance of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, to be held in New York on June 17th-20th to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries, which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognising a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity”. – Reuters
