erekat raise the roof REUTERS 311.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday officially requested an emergency meeting
of Arab League foreign ministers to discuss its plan to ask the UN in September
to recognize a Palestinian state along the June 4, 1967, lines.
Barakat
al-Farra, the PLO envoy to Egypt, said that the meeting was being called to
discuss arrangements and steps that the PA needs to take to achieve UN
recognition of a state.
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He said that the PA leadership was now waiting
for the Arab League to set a date for the emergency meeting.
The PA is
hoping to win the backing of as many Arab countries as possible for the
statehood bid.
PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday urged the EU to back
the PA’s statehood initiative.
Erekat told German, Norwegian and British
diplomats that the Israeli government was working to destroy the peace process
and the two-state solution by continuing with its policy of construction in West
Bank settlements and in east Jerusalem.
Erekat also attacked Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for allegedly rejecting US President Barack Obama’s
two-state vision.
Erekat called on the EU to follow suit with other
countries and recognize a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines with east
Jerusalem as its capital.
PA negotiator Nabil Sha’ath is expected to
visit several countries in the coming days to persuade them to support the
statehood plan at the UN.
Sha’ath said that the PA would abandon its
statehood bid only if Israel agreed to a full cessation of settlement
construction and accepted the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967
“borders.”