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alMalki: Contacts with the International Criminal Court will continue despite Israeli obstacles

In response to Israel revoking his VIP card and interrogating his delegation upon their return to Palestine

Jerusalem24 – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Malki said today that contacts will continue with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, despite all the obstacles by the Israeli occupation authorities.

He said in response to Israel revoking his VIP card and interrogating his delegation upon their return to Palestine yesterday through the border crossing with Jordan, that his VIP card has actually expired five years ago and it has not been renewed, and that it is used during travel on official business abroad representing the State of Palestine.

Malki told the official Voice of Palestine radio that the occupation authorities informed the foreign ministry delegation after interrogating them at the Jordanian-Palestinian border that dealing with the ICC is a red line, and threatened to impose sanctions against them if they proceeded and coordinated with it.

The Foreign Minister said the meeting with Bensouda stressed the need to accelerate the opening of the investigation into Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people and to make sure of a smooth transfer of the files in the transitional period for the new Prosecutor with actual steps on the ground to continue with them instead of starting a new study of the files by the new team of the Court.

Bensouda is going to end her nine-year tenure at the ICC in June as British lawyer Karim Khan, elected as the new Prosecutor, is going to take over her post.

Malki revealed that the United Nations Security Council is going to discuss the Palestinian situation in its meeting on Thursday during which the Palestine delegation will demand the implementation of Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, noting that meetings will be held with Arab ambassadors in the United States to ask them to pressure the United Nations and the Security Council to convene an international peace conference and condemn the crimes of the Israeli occupation.

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