The Palestinian Authority will abandon its plan to ask the UN in September to
recognize a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines if the Quartet members – the
US, EU, UN and Russia – recognize the two-state principle as the basis for a
settlement and call on Israel to withdraw from the territories captured in 1967,
including east Jerusalem, an adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas said on
Monday.
Nimer Hammad, political adviser to Abbas, said the Quartet should
also call for a full cessation of construction in Jewish settlements and set a
clear timetable for Israeli- Palestinian peace talks.
RELATED:
Barak: PA state bid creates 'difficult reality' for Israel
Erekat, Abu Rudaineh off to DC for talks on statehood bid
Palestinian efforts for sovereignty not limited to the UNThe Quartet
representatives are scheduled to meet on July 11 to discuss the latest
developments surrounding the Middle East peace process in wake of the PA’s
intention to go to the UN in September.
“The Palestinian Authority is
determined to proceed with its plan to go to the UN Security Council if Israel
continues to deny the rights of the Palestinians and international legitimacy,”
Hammad said.
“We are continuing with preparations in the legal and
international arenas for the September battle. But if the Quartet endorses the
twostate solution and demands a freeze of settlement construction, we will
change our mind.”
PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday that the
Palestinians would return to the negotiating table with Israel once Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declares his acceptance of the two-state solution on
the basis of the pre-1967 lines and halts construction not only in the West
Bank, but also in east Jerusalem.
Erekat is scheduled to visit Washington
later this week for talks with US administration officials on the statehood bid
and ways of resuming the stalled peace process with Israel. He will be
accompanied by Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh.
Erekat admitted
that the US was exerting heavy pressure on the PA leadership to stop it from
going to the UN in September. The US has also made it clear that it plans to
thwart the PA move by vetoing it at the UN.
Erekat said the Palestinian
stance toward the peace process was not a pre-condition.
“This is an
Israeli obligation,” he said. “We hope that the Americans and the Quartet will
oblige Netanyahu to accept the twostate solution and stop settlement
construction.”
Israel has rejected these demands in the past, and
Netanyahu, in private meetings on Monday, made clear that his position on these
matters has not changed.
“If a one-sided anti-Israel resolution goes
through, it will set back peace for decades,” Netanyahu warned. “The
Palestinians have systematically avoided negotiations."
He added, “Nothing we do
might prevent them [the Palestinians] from going forward with
this.”
Netanyahu said that American- led diplomatic efforts now are
concentrating on offering a “competing vision” of the principles for restarting
the negotiations that will talk about two states for two peoples, and the need
for the future borders to be negotiated.
The prime minister said that
when the international community focused on borders and settlements they were
inadvertently accepting a Palestinian demand for a state, and not dealing with
how to end the conflict. To end the conflict, he said, the issue of refugees and
Israel as a Jewish state had to be addressed, or else the conflict would not
end.