The Arab League announced on Wednesday that it will hold an urgent meeting Monday on the US announcement that it no longer considers Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria to be illegal.
Hossam Zaki, the pan-Arab body's deputy secretary general, said several members had backed a Palestinian Authority (PA) call for a ministerial meeting, according to AFP.
The PA's permanent representative to the Arab League has condemned Washington's change of position -- announced on Monday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- as "illegal".
The Cairo-based Arab League said the US shift was an "extremely adverse development."
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was outraged following Pompeo's statement.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman for PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said the declaration “is null and void, condemned and totally contradicts with international law, resolutions of the international legitimacy that reject settlements, and Security Council resolutions, especially resolution 2334.”
Abu Rudeineh “stressed that the US administration is not qualified or authorized to cancel the resolutions of the international legitimacy, and does not have the right to give any legitimacy to the Israeli settlements.”
On Tuesday, Abbas convened the Palestinian leadership for an emergency meeting following Pompeo’s announcement.
The PA’s official Wafa news agency said that Palestinian Arab institutions will review the US statement and make decisions on escalating the popular resistance against attempts to eliminate the “Palestinian issue”.