Foreign Minister Riyadh al-Maliki warned on Saturday of US support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu´s announcement that he would annex the Jordan Valley and areas in the West Bank if he wins Israeli elections next Tuesday.
Al-Maliki said in remarks to the official Voice of Palestine radio that "the Palestinian side looks very seriously when nominated by a State Department official that the US administration does not believe that what Netanyahu announced on the annexation of the Jordan Valley to Israeli sovereignty, contrary to any future peace process."
"Jerusalem has been informed of this announcement before it is issued and we do not believe that (Netanyahu´s pledge to annex the Jordan Valley) is preventing the possibility of a political settlement in the future," an unnamed US State Department official said on Friday.
Maliki said that the emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation tomorrow in Saudi Arabia "very important and the purpose of sending a strong and unambiguous message confirming the position of these countries towards Netanyahu´s serious statements."
"The meeting of foreign ministers will be preceded by a meeting of senior delegates at which the outcome of this meeting will be discussed in terms of issuing a statement or resolution by the ministers reflecting the position of the 57-member group of Islamic countries," he said.
Al-Maliki pointed out that "the strong statements help the Palestinian leadership because of the preparations at the United Nations, whether at the level of the Security Council or the General Assembly of the escalating measures against Netanyahu´s statements, allowing us to send stronger messages to Israel and its allies not to talk about this issue, even if it is just Statements. "
"I want to impose Israeli sovereignty on a large number of settlements in the West Bank in cooperation with the US administration," Netanyahu said at a news conference Tuesday, a week before elections scheduled for Tuesday.
On the other hand, Maliki, that the reluctance of the US envoy to the Middle East peace process Jason Greenblatt for his resignation, demonstrates the existence of "confusion and unbalance of the US position on the Palestinian file."
He said, "Greenblatt´s resignation came after pressure from the Jewish lobby in light of talk about the possibility of the US peace plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict known media (deal of the century), after the Israeli elections."
Al-Maliki pointed out that "the world is watching the American confusion towards the Palestinian file, which makes us move to push for an international peace conference," pointing out that "President Mahmoud Abbas will call in his speech at meetings of the United Nations and meetings on the sidelines to that."
The Palestinian Authority has been boycotting the US administration since the end of 2017 after President Donald Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel´s capital and rejected Washington´s plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Since the Trump announcement, the Palestinians have been calling for an international mechanism to foster peace negotiations with Israel, already suspended since 2014 after nine months of US-sponsored talks that have not led to any agreement.
