Israel blocks Ramallah meeting with Arab countries, Saudis livid at Israel

An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

By Reuters and Algemeiner

Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.

The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in Judea and Samaria in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.

Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.

The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”

The Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, said “Israel’s refusal of the committee’s visit to the West Bank embodies and confirms its extremism and refusal of any serious attempts for a peaceful pathway. It strengthens our will to double our diplomatic efforts within the international community to face this arrogance.”

The ministers required Israeli consent to travel from Jordan to Ramallah.

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 cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”

A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to Judea and Samaria.

Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries, which favor 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 recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”