Arab foreign ministers denounced on Monday the US administration’s announcement that it no longer considers Israeli settlements to be a violation of international law. In an emergency meeting convened at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League Monday, a week after the US announcement, the ministers said the US decision "has no legal effect and is a clear violation of UN resolutions". The ministers expressed their "condemnation and rejection of the US decision", a statement issued after the meeting said. Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called the decision “unfairly biased and unacceptable.” He said the US has forfeited its role as a neutral arbiter between Israel and the Palestinians. The US policy change, which sparked international condemnation, was the latest in a series of moves by the White House in which it sided with Israel’s right-wing government against the Palestinians on key issues in the decades-old conflict.