Washington asks for PA delay in resubmitting UN statehood bid
Abbas determined to “end Israeli occupation in spite of pressure the Palestinian leadership is facing.”
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHPalestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority leadership to delay its plans to resubmit the Palestinian statehood resolution to the UN Security Council until after the March 17 election in Israel, a senior Fatah official said on Tuesday.The PA leadership has accepted the US request, the official said. The Palestinians do not want the statehood bid at the Security Council to have any effect on the election, he added.Some Arab countries have also asked the PA leadership to postpone its plan to go back to the Security Council to seek a resolution establishing a time line for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, the official said.An attempt on December 30 to pass such a resolution failed when the Palestinians failed to win the backing of nine members of the Security Council.The London-based Rai al-Youm online newspaper quoted Palestinian officials as saying that Arab League foreign ministers who recently met in Cairo asked PA President Mahmoud Abbas to delay the next statehood bid at the Security Council.At the meeting, Abbas briefed the foreign ministers on his intention to soon resubmit the resolution to the Security Council.The ministers, however, asked Abbas to delay his plan, especially in wake of Washington’s threat to veto the proposed resolution if it received the required nine votes in the 15-member council, the sources said.They said the Arab leaders fear that a US veto would put them on a course of collision with the Arab people, who would be enraged by the American move. The Arab countries prefer that the Palestinians come up with a new resolution that would be less controversial and lead to the revival of the peace process with Israel, the sources said.Meanwhile, Abbas told Fatah leaders in Ramallah on Tuesday that he was determined to pursue his efforts to “end Israeli occupation in spite of pressure the Palestinian leadership is facing.”Abbas did not set a date for resubmitting the Palestinian resolution to the Security Council.The Fatah leaders issued a statement after the meeting in Ramallah in which they “affirmed the significance of escalating popular resistance against Israeli occupation and its measures and dangerous violations of international law and UN resolutions.”The statement said that the Palestinians were also determined to proceed with plans to join the International Criminal Court in order to “hold accountable Israeli war criminals.”
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