THE Arab countries that began to normalise relations with Israel under pressure and direction from the Trump administration claim that this normalisation will not negatively affect the Palestinian cause and that it serves peace in the Middle East region.
    
However, this can only be so if we overlook the fact that this step comes in violation of all the decisions of the Arab summits, especially the Beirut summit, which launched the Arab Peace Initiative and which stipulated that a just solution to the Palestinian issue had to be on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions. 

This was the key condition for the normalisation of relations between Arab countries and Israel. Israel has not made the slightest movement in this direction and hence technically and diplomatically these countries remained in a state of war with Israel until a peace treaty is agreed on United Nations terms. 

If, nonetheless, we forget all this, we still have to recognise that current developments in the region are of grave concern to Palestinians and should also be for the rest of the world.