Arab summit to endorse Palestinian positions with eye on US

Arab leaders are gathering for an annual summit where the call for Palestinian statehood is to take centre stage.

Arab leaders are gathering for an annual summit where the call for Palestinian statehood is to take centre stage.

A large advertising banner in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on January 15, 2017, in Arabic reads: “Soon we will be the majority” and “Palestine: One state for two people” in English. The ad, which appeared in Israeli dailies, makes references to the West Bank’s growing Arab population, which supporters of a two-state solution warn “will destroy Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state if a separate Palestinian state is not established alongside Israel”. (AFP File Photo)

The summit on Wednesday is expected to endorse key Palestinian positions, signalling to President Donald Trump ahead of White House meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan that a deal on Palestinian statehood must precede any Israeli-Arab normalisation.

The Palestinian issue also serves as a showcase for Arab unity in a fractured region, where leaders often find themselves on opposite sides of long-running conflicts.

From their venue on the shores of Jordan’s Dead Sea, leaders from 21 Arab countries have a view of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

President Bashar Assad is absent. He hasn’t been invited since Syria’s suspension from the Arab League following the 2011 uprising.