RAMALLAH, May 21, 2018 (WAFA) – Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), condemned on Monday the opening of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem and called for Arab boycott of states that move their embassy to Jerusalem.

“We have witnessed today how the Paraguayan president is an irresponsible political leader by defying international law and the achievement of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” said Erekat in a statement. “By opening its embassy in Jerusalem,  Paraguay is violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 as well as the very dignity of the peoples of Latin America that have struggled for freedom and justice against domination and oppression.”

Erekat said, “Moving an embassy to Jerusalem is a widely rejected step, condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Holy See as well as by the local churches of Jerusalem and the whole of Palestine.”

He said that the Palestinian Authority is already in contact with several allies to advance with the necessary diplomatic steps against the recent illegal moving of the embassies of Paraguay, Guatemala, and the United States, to Jerusalem.

“We particularly call upon Arab countries that host diplomatic missions of these countries to implement the previous resolutions of the Arab League of 1980, 1990 and 2000 to ‘severing all ties with states that transfer their embassies to Jerusalem or recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel’.” He concluded.

Paraguay followed suit of the United States and Guatemala this month when it moved on Monday its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

M.K.