Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Palestinians can join the Geneva Conventions, the international rules of war that also cover occupations, the Associated Press reported the Swiss government as saying on Friday.

Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry, as the depositary of the Geneva Conventions, said Friday that “the state of Palestine” acceded to the conventions, effective April 2.

The Palestinians signed letters of accession to several international conventions after Israel failed to carry out a planned prisoner release by the March deadline.

The Swiss statement comes after the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted Palestinian applications to join 13 other conventions on Thursday.

This will further complicate U.S. efforts to keep the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing before the April 29 deadline, especially after Israel on Thursday placed further sanctions against the Palestinians for trying to gain international recognition.

Israel argues that the Geneva Conventions rule against the colonization of occupied land shouldn’t apply to the West Bank and Gaza because it is not universally accepted as a state in its own right.

*Agencies