Fayyad to tell West: We're ready for statehood

PA prime minister to present report outlining Palestinian accomplishments in economy, infrastructure, education, security.

By REUTERS
PA PM Fayyad speaking (R) 311 (photo credit: Reuters)
PA PM Fayyad speaking (R) 311
(photo credit: Reuters)
The Palestinians are ready for statehood, according to a report to be presented to major aid donor countries in Brussels this week by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
He was expected to present facts and figures to show how his Palestinian Authority has used hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign assistance over the past two years to create justice, education, energy, health, water, security and housing services.
RELATED:Fayyad says Palestinian institutions ready for statehood Fayyad: Peaceful resistance advancing Palestinian state 'The window for a negotiated peace ends in September'
"I believe that our governing institutions have now reached a high state of readiness to assume all the responsibilities that will come with full sovereignty on the entire Palestinian occupied territory," Fayyad said in the 63-page document.
But he underlined that unless the IDF's presence in the West Bank comes to an end, these accomplishments can only achieve so much.
"Without a change to the status quo, the positive impact of internal reforms to build a strong and healthy economy will be limited in both scope and sustainability," the report says.
Palestinian leaders have said they aim to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September for recognition of statehood on all of the territory Israel took in the 1967 Six Day War, including Gaza -- over which Fayyad and PA President Mahmoud Abbas have no control.
Jerusalem has warned that such unilateral moves are not a substitute for a Middle East peace treaty, which would establish a Palestinian state by mutual consent.
"Palestinians seek to go to an international forum and avoid peace negotiations," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told EU diplomats on Monday. "It pushes peace further back."
Palestinians receive int'l encouragement
But the PA leadership is plowing ahead with clear signs of international encouragement. The number of countries that recognize Palestine as a state has risen this year to 110, more than half the membership of the United Nations.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund last week praised the performance of the PA, saying in separate reports that it was well-positioned to run an independent nation.
Fayyad said his government had connected all Palestinian residential areas, including remote ones, to the electricity grid, and paved and fixed 2,250 km (1,400 miles) of streets.
While they make up two parts of the same future state in theory, Gaza and the West Bank have never been more divided, politically and geographically. Abbas and Fayyad say they want peace with Israel. Hamas, which controls Gaza, rejects any deal that accepts the Jewish state.
The "occupation," says the report, remains the "most significant challenge to economic development in Palestine."
"Restrictions on movement and access, as well as lack of control over borders and natural resources continue to be real barriers to the growth of the economy."