Abbas Threatens To Revive Statehood Drama
The Palestinian Authority will renew its efforts to win UN recognition for a Palestinian state if it does not receive a positive response from Israel to its positions on a prospective peace deal, PA President Mahmoud Abbas told an unofficial Israeli delegation on Sunday.
Abbas gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a month to respond to the Palestinian positions, which will be laid out in a letter to be delivered to Netanyahu next Wednesday during a meeting in Jerusalem with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
“It won’t be just a letter,” Abbas said, according to a source who was present at the meeting. “I also intend to turn to the public in Israel and around the world, and present the Palestinian positions regarding a peace agreement with Israel.”
Abbas said he would not wait until after the U.S. presidential elections in November, which he said U.S. administration officials had requested, before asking the UN General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinian Authority from “observer” status to that of a state without full membership in the United Nations.
“In another month the picture will become clearer,” a source quoted Abbas as saying. “If I don’t receive a positive response from Netanyahu, I will resume the UN process and ask the UN General Assembly to receive the status of a nonmember state.”
For more, go to Haaretz.com
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