Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
continued
on Friday to criticize the Palestinian Authority's statehood petition
at the United Nations, saying that the Palestinian people should not
have "to beg for a state."
Speaking after Friday prayers at a mosque in Gaza City, Haniyeh said that "liberation" of Palestinian land must come
first, and then the "state," Hamas-affiliated Al Resalah reported.
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have reservations about the United Nations because we feel the
institution is controlled by the Americans and others," Haniyeh
continued. "The political orientation of the United Nations is not
beneficial."
Haniyeh's comments underlined tensions between Hamas and
Fatah over the PLO's statehood bid at the UN, and came hours after
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made it clear that despite
heavy international pressure, he is determined to present a request to
the UN to be accepted as a full member after his speech at the General
Assembly.
During a meeting with 200 Palestinian-American
leaders, Abbas said: "I have to tell you something important. I am
under heavy pressure not to go to the UN but also I want to say that I
will go to the Security Council and I have no intention to withdraw the
request no matter what pressure there is."
Abbas' comments came after
Israeli diplomatic officials said on
Thursday that fierce US resistance, as well as even some European opposition, could
force him to jettison plans to
bring his statehood bid either to the UN Security Council or the
General Assembly anytime soon.
Abbas will reveal his hand during
his much-anticipated speech to
the General Assembly. During that speech he is expected to say he is
going forward with a request to the Security Council for full UN
membership, as he has said he would do; whether he would be satisfied
with an upgrade for “Palestine” from observer to nonmember-state
observer in the General Assembly; or whether he will pursue both
initiatives.
According to the officials, a proposal floated by Quartet envoy Tony Blair and first reported last week in
The Jerusalem Post would have Abbas submit a formal request, via Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to the Security Council.
Ban,
however, will not immediately pass the request on, giving the Quartet –
the US, EU, Russia and UN – time to come up with a statement agreed
upon by both sides that would form the parameters for relaunching
negotiations.
The benefit of this proposal, the officials said, is that it would allow
Abbas a face-saving way out of forcing a vote at the Security Council,
since formally he will have done what he promised the Palestinians:
Submit a request to the Security Council.
The question then would become whether he would go to the General Assembly seeking an upgrade.
While it is clear that the Palestinians would win a vote in the General
Assembly by a large margin, since a simple majority would be all that
was needed there, diplomatic officials said some European countries were
pressing him to refrain from going to the General Assembly because it
would split the EU at a time when it is trying to project an image of
unity on key foreign-policy issues.
