CAIRO, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. closure of the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington is an unfair decision and a demonstration of U.S. bias towards the Israeli agenda at the expense of the Palestinian rights, Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said Tuesday.
"The decision is an episode in an extended series of oppressive U.S. policies against the Palestinian rights, with the purpose of eliminating their cause," said the AL chief in a statement.
He also slammed U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and its relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the disputed holy city, as well as the recent U.S. move to cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
"All recent U.S. measures reflect misreading of the Palestinian struggle and history, and misunderstanding of the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Aboul-Gheit added.
Also on Tuesday, the AL chief attended a meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the league's headquarters in Cairo where they discussed the repercussions of the U.S. decision to halt financial aid to UNRWA.
The meeting was also attended by UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl.
Going on for decades now, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has erupted since 1948 following the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Western-backed creation of Israel.
The peace talks between the two sides have been frozen since 2014 due to Israel's settlement expansion policy, which is met by regional and international rejection.
On the other hand, the Israeli side accuses the Palestinians of intransigence and rejection of proposed peace initiatives.
Aboul-Gheit described the Israeli accusations as "baseless and illogical," stressing that "the Palestinian side hasn't been offered any specific negotiable proposals or plans for a settlement until now."
The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in light of the UN-proposed two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.
