The Council of Arab Foreign Ministers held an emergency meeting here Thursday and reiterated their support for the Arab peace initiative, which was originally proposed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, to normalize Arab-Israeli ties.

“The Arab peace initiative, which was endorsed by the Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002, still remains the ideal solution to end the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said an official statement following the Cairo talks.

The council urged the Arab peace committee to continue its efforts to mobilize support for the peace initiative at regional and international levels,” the statement said.

The ministers said Arab League would shore up international support for another attempt to obtain a UN resolution on ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.

The decision came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked them for another chance following the UN Security Council’s rejection of his last bid in December. Those at the meeting gave several Arab countries the task of undertaking “the necessary communications and consultations to submit a new Arab proposal to the Security Council.”

After last month’s failed UN bid, the Palestinians were granted a request to join the International Criminal Court, in a move paving the way for them to pursue Israeli leaders for alleged war crimes.

An Arab-backed resolution on ending the Israeli occupation by the end of 2017 was rejected at the Security Council on Dec. 30, with the US and non-permanent member Australia voting against it.

China, France and Russia were among eight countries that backed the resolution, just one vote short of the nine required for adoption.

Five countries seen as having a more pro-Palestinian stance — Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela — began their term at the Security Council this month.