Palestine files complaint with ICJ against US relocation of its embassy to al-Quds

Rasa - Palestine has filed an official complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the United States’ relocation of its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, saying the highly controversial and provocative move must be reversed as it violates an international treaty.

News ID: 440766

Date: 30 September 2018 - 13:59

RNA - The United Nations' principal judicial organ announced in a statement on Friday that the Palestinian suit had requested the court “to order the United States of America to withdraw (its) diplomatic mission from the Holy City of Jerusalem al-Quds.”

The World Court also said the complaint, sent from the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by President Mahmoud Abbas, argues that the 1961 Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations requires a country to locate its embassy on the territory of a host state. This is while the Israeli regime controls Jerusalem al-Quds militarily.

The US-Palestine ties deteriorated last December, when US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and announced plans to transfer the embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city, triggering widespread anger both inside and outside the occupied territories.

The US embassy relocation, however, took place on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), sparking deadly clashes in the besieged Gaza Strip.

According to Press TV, Israel lays claim to the whole Jerusalem al-Quds, but the international community views the city’s eastern sector as an occupied territory and Palestinians consider it as the capital of their future state.

The contentious move led Abbas to formally declare that the Palestinians would no longer accept the US as a mediator to resolve the conflict, because Washington was “completely biased” towards Tel Aviv.

Late last year, Trump said proposed a backchannel plan to allegedly reach a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Although the plan has not been released, leaks signal it will consist of the same tried and failed ideas.

The American leader has times and again called his yet-to-be-released plan as “The Deal of the Century”, but it is coincidentally the title of a 1983 comedy, which features a bunch of hapless arms dealers, who compete to sell a weapon, called the Peacemaker, to a South American dictator.

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