Palestinians inspect the site where a smuggling tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was targeted by an Israeli air strike overnight on Thursday in Rafah, the southern enclaved Palestinian territory (AFP photo by Said Khatib)

The Arab Peace Initiative Committee “has decided to submit a call to the member states of the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state”, the league’s secretary general, Nabil Arabi, told a news conference after the meeting of the committee in the Qatari capital, according to Agence France-Presse.

The initiative would “move to present a request for full membership of a Palestinian state in the General Assembly and the Security Council”, Arabi added.

Arab League foreign ministers meeting Thursday in Doha said they would support the Palestinian bid, AP reported.

The ministers pledged in a statement to “take all necessary measures and rally needed support of all world countries, starting with members of the Security Council, to recognise the state of Palestine… and to win full membership of the United Nations”.

“Comprehensive and just peace with Israel will not be accomplished unless Israel withdraws from all occupied Arab territories,” it said.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported that Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh, who participated in Thursday’s meeting, stressed Jordan’s support for the Palestinian people to regain their legitimate rights, foremost of which is their right to establish their own independent sovereign state on their national soil.

Judeh also emphasised that Jordan is committed to the Arab consensus in support of the Palestinian position, including the possibility to go to the UN to break the stalemate surrounding peace efforts.

Addressing the participants, Judeh held the Israeli government responsible for the stalemate facing US and international efforts towards the resumption of serious peace negotiations to arrive at the two-state solution.

He emphasised that the Arabs and the Palestinians accepted US President Barack Obama’s proposal on the resumption of the peace negotiations on the basis of the 1967 borders and that Israel is the side that rejects the American proposal, Petra reported.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the aim of the Doha meeting, which was attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and various Arab foreign ministers, was to “strengthen Arab support for obtaining UN membership for a Palestinian state”, according to AFP.

“We hope the United States will not use its veto against this decision,” AP quoted him as saying. read more