FM urges European countries to stand by inalienable rights of Palestinian people

Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Riyad al-Malki, today urged European counties to stand by the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and against the American so-called deal of the century.

Malki met with several European foreign ministers on the sidelines of the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council, which opened yesterday in Geneva.

In his meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Augusto Santos Silva, Malki urged Portugal, among other countries, to take a clear position on the attempts to undermine the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to exercise self-determination and establish an independent state on their national soil with Jerusalem as its capital.

He briefed Silva on the risks posed by the US Mideast plan, dubbed “deal of the century”, including the risk of destroying the prospects for peace, and stressed the special role that the European Union could play in encountering the plan.

The top Palestinian diplomat reiterated that the US plan, which cements Israel’s longstanding policy of permanent occupation, colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people, in fact undermines the decades-long international efforts to achieve just peace and sustains the Israeli occupation.

He highlighted the role that Portugal could play to safeguard the internationally agreed two-state solution and slammed the joint US-Israeli mapping process to delineate the occupied West Bank, starting with the Arial colonial settlement, as biased in favor of Israeli colonialism.

The top Portuguese diplomat reiterated his country’s support to the two-state solution as well as the Palestinian people’s rights, and stressed the need to take concrete steps to achieve the two-state solution based on the international terms of reference.

Malki also met his Polish and Luxembourg counterparts and discussed the same issues.

(WAFA)