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US Warned Not to Move Embassy to Jerusalem
Secretary-General Ahmed Esmat Abdel- Meguid of the Cairo-based Arab League (AL) on Monday warned the US and other countries not to move their embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Speaking to the 115th AL Council session, Abdel-Meguid said that the US, Russia, the European Union and all other countries as well as international and regional organizations, should perceive "disastrous consequences" for the region if they move their embassies to Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was sworn in last Wednesday, had paid a provocative visit to a disputed shrine in East Jerusalem on September 28, sparking bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops over the past months which have killed more than 400 people, mostly Palestinians.
The Palestinians, who view Sharon's move as imposing an Israeli claim to the entire city, want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
They have insisted that under UN resolutions 242, 338 and 478, east Jerusalem be part of the occupied territories and any action that changes the holy city's status is illegal.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last Wednesday that President George W. Bush would stick to a plan to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital Jerusalem.
The pan-Arab forum's session at the foreign ministerial level opened Monday morning to prepare agenda for the next Arab summit scheduled for March 27 in Jordan's capital Amman.
The ministers also dealt with some 41 items, including the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, ways to support the Palestinian uprising and the issue of Palestinian refugees.
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