Arab League, Palestine condemn opening of Czech Quds office

Prague opened a Quds branch of its Israel embassy, which is located in Tel Aviv, on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The inauguration was attended by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, two weeks after the Israel regime sent 5,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Czech Republic under a “vaccine diplomacy” programme that later came under legal scrutiny and was frozen.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called Prague’s move “a blatant attack on the Palestinian people and their rights, a flagrant violation of international law,” and said it would harm peace prospects.

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement that the legal status of Quds will be affected by the decision of one country or another to open representative offices. East Quds is an occupied land under International law.

Only two countries have full embassies in Jerusalem: the United States - after former US President Donald Trump broke with decades of US policy to recognise Quds as the capital of Israel regime - and Guatemala.

ZZ/PR