In his opening statement, during the weekly Cabinet meeting held in Ramallah today, Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh made the following remarks:
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz and his Cabinet for their warm reception and the successful visit of the Palestinian ministerial delegation to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. During the visit, which was successful and effective by all standards, we signed 3 Memorandums of Understanding, and applicable agreements within a specified time frame.
I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz for his hospitality in hosting a 1000 pilgrims of Palestinian martyrs’ families to perform Pilgrimage 'Hajj’ rituals this year. This is an Arab and Islamic message to us in response to the Israeli piracy of the allowances paid to martyr and prisoner families.
We supervise a study in cooperation with the United Nations on the costs of occupation in accordance with a resolution of the UN General Assembly requesting the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to conduct this study and submit it to the General Assembly. The study mentions that since the onset of the occupation in 1967, the Palestinian people have lost more than 2.5 million productive trees, including 800,000 olive trees. Therefore, whether by opportunity cost or all economic calculations, this occupation must be held accountable under international law.
A ministerial delegation, accompanied with a business delegation, is expected to pay a visit to the Republic of Iraq next Monday to open up economic horizons and prospects for cooperation. Our agenda in Iraq will be announced later. This visit is upon the guidance and supervision of President Mahmoud Abbas to open up to all possible Arab cooperation and strengthen the Arab support to our strategy aimed at the disengagement from the occupation.
