‘OIC to Convene After Netanyahu Annexation Plans’

Date: 14 September 2019 - 21:34

News ID: ۷۰۴۵۲

ANKARA (Dispatches) – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday to discuss the Zionist regime’s announcement of its intention to annex areas of the West Bank, the Turkish foreign ministry said on Saturday.
Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he would annex the Jordan Valley, a large swathe of the occupied West Bank that the occupying regime captured in 1967 and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.
In a statement, Turkey’s foreign ministry said the OIC would meet in Jeddah to discuss "Netanyahu’s statements on the intention to annex Jordan Valley and the illegal settlements in West Bank by Israel.”
Around 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 Zionists settlers live in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The main Palestinian city is Ariha, with around 28 villages and smaller Bedouin communities.
Five major European nations said they were deeply concerned about the Zionist regime’s announcement of its intention to annex areas of the West Bank.
"This would, if implemented, constitute a serious breach of international law," the German Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.
"France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom will continue to call on all parties to refrain from actions in contravention of international law which would imperil the viability of a two-state solution, based on the 1967 lines, and make it harder to achieve a just and lasting peace,” the ministry’s statement said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also censured Netanyahu’s election pledge to annex the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, terming it as a gross violation of international law.
"Such steps, if implemented, would constitute a serious violation of international law,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The UN chief said such a move would undermine chances for peace in the Middle East region.
It would "be devastating to the potential of reviving negotiations and regional peace, while severely undermining the viability of the two-state solution,” he said.
Netanyahu’s pledge was roundly condemned by the Palestinians as well as countries in the Middle East, including Jordan, Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Netanyahu hinted that US President Donald Trump’s yet-t-be-unveiled |peace” proposal on the Zionist-Palestinian conflict would allow the regime to annex the Jordan Valley — which accounts for a quarter of the West Bank — and the northern Dead Sea.