Abbas to push for UN recognition

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/182252.html

Acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas has told the Arab League (AL) that he seeks the UN recognition of an independent Palestine as his only option.

Addressing an AL meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Saturday, Abbas said there were “no shared foundations” for negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestine's “only option” was to go to the United Nations, Reuters reported on Saturday.

“We see from the conditions that Netanyahu laid out that there are no shared foundations ... for negotiations. Our fundamental option is to go to the United Nations,” Abbas said in his opening remarks.

“This is no secret, we have said it to the Americans and the Europeans and the Israelis, our only option is to go to the United Nations,” he emphasized.

Abbas' comments referred to Netanyahu's last week speech at US Congress, during which he refused to accept US President Barack Obama's proposal that Israel return to borders set before 1967 Israeli-Arab war.

Netanyahu pledged to keep under control key parts of the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem) -- which is widely regarded as the future capital of an independent Palestinian state.

Abbas touched upon a recently sealed reconciliation treaty between his Fatah party and rival Hamas, expressing fear that the recent diplomatic step could lead to financial sanctions on Fatah, which is already dependent on international donors, including the United States and the European Union.

The Fatah movement came under severe attack in the wake of signing the unity deal with Hamas. The US threatened to cut aid to the party and Israel said Fatah must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas.

Currently more than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine as a state based on the 1967 borders, the boundaries that existed before Israel captured East al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.