US Withdrawal from Vienna Protocol Reflects Its Isolation

“The US administration’s withdrawal from the Vienna protocol on dispute resolution is evidence of its increasing isolation resulting from its reckless and imbalanced policies,” Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Twitter remarks, Palinfo reported.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton announced on Wednesday that Washington was withdrawing from the "optional protocol" in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. He said it follows a case brought by Palestine at the International Court of Justice, challenging the US embassy's move to Jerusalem.

"I am announcing that the president has decided that the United States will withdraw from the optional protocol and dispute resolution to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," Bolton added, noting that "this is in connection with a case brought by the so-called state of Palestine, naming the United States as the defendant, challenging our move of our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem".

Recently, the State of Palestine has filed a lawsuit against the US at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial body of the UN, for violating international law by moving its embassy in Israel to the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Foreign Minister Riyad Malki said last Saturday in a statement that the case was based on Palestine’s membership in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries, specifically the Optional Protocol concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes.

He explained the foreign ministry, in preparing its case, submitted a declaration recognizing the jurisdiction of the ICJ to settle all disputes that have come up or may come up as per the decision of the UN Security Council and the procedures and statute of the Court.

Malki added that based on the procedures to file a lawsuit with the ICJ, he sent a letter last May to the US State Department asking it not to move its embassy to Jerusalem because this step would violate the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Security Council resolutions.

He stated that due to failure of the US to respond to the letter and its non-compliance with international law, it was informed in a written memorandum dated July 4 of the existence of a legal dispute as per the rules and procedures of the ICJ.

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