Non-Aligned Palestine talks shelved
2012-08-05 17:32
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Jerusalem - The Palestinian Authority cancelled a meeting of the Palestine Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM ) in Ramallah on Sunday, after Israel denied West Bank entry to the representatives of five states who were due to participate.
Israel had earlier prevented representatives of Algeria, Bangladesh, Cuba, Indonesia and Malaysia from accessing the West Bank from Jordan, as they do not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Paul Hirschson said delegates from seven other countries due to attend the meeting - Egypt, India, Colombia, South Africa, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe - were welcome to enter the West Bank.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki announced that the meeting would be cancelled, adding that it would not be moved to Jordan or held via video conference.
He said the delegates waiting in Jordan had decided that, if the gathering did not take place in Ramallah, it would not take place at all.
The planned meeting would have been the first gathering of its kind in the West Bank since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
The NAM is a group of states that say they are not formally aligned with or against any major world power bloc. It has some 120 members, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, but also in Asia and South America, and is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
The meeting, requested by the Palestinian Authority, would have introduce NAM members to the Palestinian situation and sought support for a Palestinian bid to win recognition as a non-member state at the United Nations General Assembly, Malki had said.
"The meeting aims to stress the right of our people and leadership to hold conferences on our land and to support our struggle to end the occupation and settlements and establish our independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said on Saturday.
Malki also confirmed on Saturday that President Mahmoud Abbas would request recognition as a non-member state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 27.
- SAPA
