US embassy relocation would be explosive for Mideast: AL

The Arab League (AL) has slammed a US plan to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, saying such a move would worsen the already-tense situation in the Middle East region.

The US diplomatic mission’s transfer would be explosive for the situation in the Mideast, Egypt's state news MENA news agency quoted AL Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit as saying after a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Cairo on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump had pledged during his campaign to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

In September 2016, Trump who was the Republican presidential front-runner at the time, promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s undivided capital if he won the presidential race.

The pledge, however, has sparked a chorus of condemnations, with several Palestinian and Arab leaders warning that the move could wreck the chances of peace in the Middle East for good.

Elsewhere in his comments, Aboul Gheit stressed that the so-called “two-state solution remains the real way to achieving” peace.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict “requires a comprehensive and just peace based on a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state,” he added.

Two-state solution sole way ahead: UN envoy

Separately on Thursday, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolay Mladenov, said the so-called two-state solution is “the only way” to meet the aspirations of the Palestinians and the Israelis.

He made the comments at a UN Security Council meeting which was held to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Tensions flared between Israelis and Palestinians this week after Washington stepped back from its longstanding commitment to the so-called two-state solution.

This is while successive US administrations have supported the bid, under which a Palestinian state would be formed. 

On Tuesday, a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington would no longer insist on a “two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict but would support whatever the two sides agree to.

During a Wednesday meeting with Netanyahu, Trump also suggested that a two-state solution was not necessary.

“I’m looking at two-state and one-state and I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like,” he said.

However, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres took an opposite stance, underlining the need for pursuing the so-called two-state solution and stressed that there is “no alternative” to that option.

Read more:

• UN chief backs two-state solution after US ditches support

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