Lebanon calls for economic sanctions against the US

MENA

Published: 2017-12-10 14:56

Last Updated: 2024-03-26 13:06


Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. (Twitter)
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. (Twitter)

Lebanon has called for Arab nations to hit Washington with sanctions over Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil call for preemptive measures against the US to prevent it moving its embassy during a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers on Saturday.

"Pre-emptive measures [must be] taken against the decision ... beginning with diplomatic measures, then political, then economic and financial sanctions," Bassil said at the meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

During his dramatic speech, Bassil called for Arab unity around the issue of Jerusalem.

"Could this calamity bring us together and wake us from our slumber? Let it be known that history will never forgive us and our future will not be proud of what we have done," he told the meeting.

Bassil also called for an emergency Arab summit, a proposition that's said to have been embraced by several Arab league member-states.

Meanwhile, the head of of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, called US President Donald Trump's decision "dangerous and unacceptable" and a "flagrant attack on a political solution" to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

The statement by the regional bloc's secretary-general, came after an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from 22 Arab states in Egypt's capital, Cairo, on Saturday.

Aboul-Gheit said Trump's decision was "against international law and raises questions over American efforts to support peace" between Palestine and Israel.

The shift in US policy "undermines Arab confidence" in the Trump administration and "amounts to the legalisation" of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, he added.