Ramallah Non-Aligned Movement Meet Canceled as Israel Bars Ministers
A key meeting of Non-Aligned Movement ministers which was to have taken place in the West Bank on Sunday was cancelled after Israel denied several of them entry, officials said.
The ministers were to have attended a two-day meeting of the movement's Palestine Committee in Ramallah at which they were poised to sign a declaration in support of a fresh Palestinian bid for upgraded U.N. membership.
"After consultation between all the delegations in Amman and the Palestinian leadership, the Ramallah meeting of the Palestine Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement has been canceled," a senior Palestinian official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.
It came shortly after Israel barred ministers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cuba and Algeria from travelling to Ramallah.
A senior Israeli official said the ban targeted five countries which have no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
"A decision has been taken to bar the diplomatic representatives of several countries which do not recognize Israel from crossing the Israeli borders," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
However, Algeria had earlier informed the Palestinian Authority it would not be sending a delegation to avoid friction at the Israeli-controlled frontier.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned Israel's "blatant action," saying: "It is a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and of Israel's obligations as the occupying power."
"This Israeli action highlights once again to NAM and to the whole international community the plight of the Palestinian people in their struggle to achieve full independence," Amr told reporters in Amman.
Foreign ministers from the 13 countries on NAM's Palestine Committee were to have signed the so-called "Ramallah Declaration" supporting a Palestinian bid to upgrade their U.N. status from observer to non-member state.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki on Saturday called the statement "a political declaration that endorses and supports the Palestinian people's right to have a state, condemns settlements and supports the Palestinian bid to obtain non-member status at the U.N."
The request will be put to the U.N. General Assembly on September 27, exactly a year after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tried to obtain full member status.
Despite the high-profile effort, the request was never put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council, where the United States had pledged to veto it.
"In the up-and-coming session of the General Assembly next month, President Abbas will speak about this on the 27th," Malki said.
"Palestine will apply immediately to the U.N. and the head of the General Assembly will be informed that Palestine wants to obtain non-member status," he said.
"After that, we will begin communicating with all components of the General Assembly to talk about the appropriate date" for a vote.
The fresh attempt to secure upgraded status, which is likely to win support from most NAM states when it holds its 16th annual summit in Tehran later this month, is strongly opposed by Israel and the United States.
"The Non-Aligned summit in Tehran will adopt the Ramallah declaration," Malki said.
He also said the logistics of getting the foreign ministers into Ramallah for Sunday's meeting had been closely coordinated with Israel, Jordan and Egypt.
"The logistics of getting them here isn't easy at all, especially as some countries have no relations with Israel and cannot enter through the Israeli border," he said.
The Palestine Committee comprises ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cuba, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Senegal, Colombia and India.
Normally, anyone visiting the Palestinian territories can only get there by flying to Tel Aviv then driving through Israel to Ramallah, or coming through an Israeli-controlled border crossing from Jordan into the occupied West Bank.
In a bid to simplify the logistics, Malki had said the ministers would be flown by helicopter from a Jordanian airport to Ramallah in a move which still requires Israeli permission.
Source: Agence France Presse
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