Romania will not support a Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN in September,
senior government officials said Wednesday, following talks Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu held in Bucharest with the country’s
leaders.
According to the officials, it became clear after Netanyahu’s
talks with Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc – and later with President Traian
Basescu – that Bucharest would not cast a vote for the
Palestinians.
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against the move, and may abstain, along with a number of other European
countries.
Israel has set as its goal getting nearly 60 democratic
countries – what has been referred to in Jerusalem as the “moral minority” – to
not support the move, thereby depriving the Palestinians of a moral victory, and
allowing the resolution to be passed on the strength of the Palestinians
built-in majority in the General Assembly.
Boc, at the press conference,
said Romania supported a negotiated two-state settlement, and was opposed to
unilateral steps.
“The Palestinians are not grasping the price that they
will pay if they unilaterally declare a state with the support of the UN,”
Netanyahu told Boc – alluding to the possibility that the Palestinians may lose
aid from the US, and some countries in the West, as a result of the
move.
Netanyahu, who discussed the developments in the Arab world with
Boc, said that Arab countries could learn from Romania about how to transition
into a democracy.
“The peoples of the Middle East can look at Romania and
see where you were, where you are today, and in what direction you are headed,”
Netanyahu said. “I believe that in this way you can serve as a model to the
countries of the Middle East so they can learn about how to make the
change.”
Netanyahu is scheduled to fly to neighboring Bulgaria on
Thursday, where he will be met by eight other Israeli ministers and deputy
ministers for a joint government meeting with the Bulgarian cabinet.
He
will also meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and President Georgi
Parvanov.
Netanyahu is scheduled to return to Israel Thursday night.