Abbas says he is ready to set up Palestinian State on '22 percent of land'

"The time has come to find the political will in order to work seriously for achieving the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas talks during a news conference in Egypt (photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas talks during a news conference in Egypt
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would be ready to set up a Palestinian State on what is 22 percent of the size he says it should be, Turkey's Anadolu Agency news reported on Tuesday.
Riyad Mansour, the UN's permanent observer of the "State of Palestine," made the statements in Abbas's name, saying that "the time has come to find the political will in order to work seriously for achieving the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the independence of the Palestinian state on the bases of 1967."
"The State of Palestine continued to act with utmost responsibility to serve its people and uphold its legal obligations and international commitments," Mansour said.
"It had stood ready for decades to reach a solution to the conflict, and despite diminishing hopes and a dangerous situation on the ground; it remained committed to the two-state solution."
Mansour made the statements while speaking at a "Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People" on International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
On Monday, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki announced that the PA has decided to delay its statehood bid at the United Nations Security Council, which was supposed to take place at the end of this month.
Malki told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency that the decision to postpone the statehood bid came following US pressure and threats, as well as the failure of the PA to secure the backing of nine Security Council members in favor of the statehood bid.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas said two weeks ago that he was determined to proceed with his plan to seek a Security Council resolution that would set a timetable for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.
Abbas was hoping that the resolution would declare all the territories captured by Israel in 1967, including east Jerusalem, as the lands of the future Palestinian state.