GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On Oct. 3, the United States said it was pulling out of the optional protocol of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, which provides the International Court of Justice (ICJ) compulsory jurisdiction over disputes between state parties to international treaties and conventions.

US national security adviser John Bolton told reporters at the White House, “This is in connection with a case brought by the so-called state of Palestine naming the United States as a defendant, challenging our move of our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

On Sept. 29, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki revealed that Palestine, as a non-member observer state at the United Nations and a party to the Vienna Convention, had filed a lawsuit with the ICJ in an attempt to obtain a judicial ruling obliging the United States to withdraw the decision to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem.

In an Oct. 4 statement, Maliki called the US withdrawal disrespectful to international law. “The US administration continues to support the Israeli colonial project relentlessly and [support] its hostility toward Palestine and the Palestinian people, at the expense of protecting the status of international standards,” Maliki said.