CAIRO — The Arab League said it is to hold an urgent meeting on Monday on the US announcement that it no longer considers Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal.

Hossam Zaki, the pan-Arab body's deputy secretary general, said several members had backed a Palestinian Authority call for a ministerial meeting.

The PA's permanent representative to the Arab League has condemned Washington's change of position — announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — as "illegal".

Pompeo said on Monday that after legal consultations, the US had concluded the establishment of settlements was "not, per se, inconsistent with international law".

The Cairo-based Arab League has said the US shift was an "extremely adverse development." — AFP