The US administration on Monday reiterated its opposition to the Palestinian
Authority’s plan to petition the UN in September for recognition of a
Palestinian state on the pre- 1967 lines.
The US stance was relayed to
the PA during a meeting in Jericho between Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat,
US special Middle East envoy David Hale and US Consul General in Jerusalem
Daniel Rubenstein.
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According to Erekat, the US officials made it clear
that Washington’s preferred option remains the resumption of peace talks with
Israel on the basis of US President Barack Obama’s two-state
vision.
Erekat said he told the US officials that the PA leadership’s
effort to achieve membership of a Palestinian state in the UN does not
contradict in any way with efforts to resume the peace process.
He said
that admission of a Palestinian state into the UN General Assembly would be
based on international law and legitimacy, as well as the terms of reference of
the peace process: the road map, the Arab peace initiative of 2002, Obama’s
vision and the Quartet policy on the Middle East.
Erekat added that the
PA has requested a meeting of the Arab League foreign ministers to set a date
for filing a request with the UN to recognize a Palestinian state. He noted that
according to UN regulations the Palestinians should submit their request 45 days
before the Security Council meeting on September 20.
Erekat also briefed
the US officials on the PA’s final decision to proceed with the statehood
bid.
The decision was announced late Sunday night following a meeting of
the PLO Executive Committee headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Yasser
Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the PLO Executive Committee, said the official
decision was taken “out of keenness of the Palestinian people and their
legitimate leadership to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on an
independent state that would live in peace and security with its neighbors and
would abide by all internal laws and conventions.”
Abed Rabbo urged the
international community to support the PA’s plan.
Another PA negotiator,
Nabil Shaath, said that 115 countries have recognized a Palestinian state, with
five that failed to do so until now. He said that Lebanon and Syria were among
the countries that still haven’t recognized a state because they believe that
recognition of the PLO is sufficient.
Shaath predicted that another 20
countries would recognize a state on the pre-1967 lines within the next two
months.
He acknowledged that the PA could face a problem in the Security
Council because of Washington’s threat to veto the statehood bid. He said that a
veto would not prevent the Palestinians from seeking the status of permanent
member in the UN General Assembly.
“We will then use this recognition to
go back to the Security Council,” he explained.
Israeli government
officials, meanwhile, said the PA decision to move ahead with the UN bid shows
that “they have no intention whatsoever of returning to direct
negotiations.”
“This is a blow to peace,” one official said, adding that
he didn’t think the PA decision was a case of brinkmanship, but rather, that the
Palestinians did indeed intend to go through with their September
gambit.
Despite the move, the official said US attempts to find a
framework to get the sides back to the negotiating table before September were
continuing.
“No one is giving up,” the official said, although he called
this “definitely a bad sign.”
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