Angry Palestine quits chairing Arab League

Palestine has quit its current chairmanship of Arab League meetings, the Palestinian foreign minister said yesterday, condemning as dishonourable any Arab agreement to establish formal ties with Israel. Palestinians see the accords which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed with Israel in Washington a week ago as betrayal of their cause and a blow to their quest for an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory. Earlier this month, the Palestinians failed to persuade the Arab League to condemn nations breaking ranks and normalising relations with Israel. Palestine was supposed to chair Arab League meetings for the next six months, but Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah that it no longer wanted the position.

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