Occupied Jerusalem: Palestinian officials on Sunday said they had been making an effort to gain European Union’s (EU) recognition of the state of Palestine with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital, after the US recognised occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with EU’s foreign ministers on January 22 in Brussels, during which he is expected to ask them to recognise the Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.

It is believed that EU’s recognition would revive the internationally-backed two-state solution and help the Palestinian bid to get a full UN membership, Xinhua reported.

A committee from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has been preparing documents for discussion during the meeting of the organisation’s Central Council this week, deciding the future Palestinian political steps.

“The moves to be discussed include defining the relations with Israel in addition to the political and legal steps the Palestinians may take,” said Ahmad Majdalani, member of the PLO Executive Committee.

The Palestinian official stressed that next steps are based on the reality that the interim period with Israel had come to an end, and there must be a new political formula with multilateral sponsorship for the peace process.

“The general trend is to focus on how to deal with the emerging situation, considering Palestine as a state under occupation and requesting full UN membership for Palestine, which requires extensive international support,” he said.

Joining the UN as a member state requires support by nine out of the 15 Security Council members, while the five permanent members have the veto power.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Revolutionary Council of Abbas’ Fatah Party, Majid Al Fitiyani said that political and technical preparations are underway in full swing to make the Council’s meetings successful.

“The Council has a number of major challenges facing the Palestinian cause and the political process following the US President Donald Trump’s decision on [occupied] Jerusalem,” he said.

He pointed out that the Council will comprehensively review the entire political process, including the form and content of Palestinian relations with Israel and the development of a strategy for the future Palestinian action.

The Fatah official added that future Palestinian approach is based on the declaration of the State of Palestine under occupation, after discussing all aspects of legal and possible consequences.

Under the previous Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, the status of occupied Jerusalem should be determined through the final-status talk between Israel and the Palestinians. All countries have so far located their embassies in Tel Aviv, in order to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The Palestinians have repeatedly warned that changing the legal and political status of occupied Jerusalem would undermine the peace process.

On Sunday, a meeting of foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Morocco, in addition to Arab League Chief, supported the rights of the Palestinians to preserve their legal and historic rights in occupied Jerusalem and create their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

They also stressed the necessity to confront Trump’s decision.