Arab League committee supports Abbas UN plan

The Arab Peace Initiative Committee on Sunday announced its support for President Mahmoud Abbas' plans to ask the UN to admit Palestine as a non-member state, official news agency Wafa reported. The meeting of Arab foreign ministers came at the request of Abbas to establish a "united position" on the issue. It was chaired by Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani. The committee thanked all member states who committed to their financial promises to support the Palestinian Authority financially, calling on other Arab states to fulfill their financial obligations. The committee also confirmed resolution 551, made at the Arab League summit in Baghdad, which requires Arab donors to provide $100 million per month to the PA. President Abbas confirmed he supports exhuming late president Yasser Arafat's body for examination, and the Arab Peace committee stressed the importance of forming an independent and unbiased committee to investigate his death. Palestinian efforts to register the Nativity Church in Bethlehem on UNESCO's world heritage sites list are to be applauded, the committee said, adding that Israel must accept the two state solution and immediately stop settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The international community and the United Nations must do more to lift the oppressive and illegal siege on the Gaza Strip, it added. President Abbas thanked Saudi Arabia for its financial contributions, adding that reconciliation talks are progressing but Hamas has slowed the process by stopping the work of the central elections committee.