Palestinians We're One Step Away From Pursuing Int'l Bodies

By Jpost.Com Staff
Jerusalem Post
April 22, 2012

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=267029

The Palestinian Authority is one step away from
approaching international organizations unilaterally,
should Israel fail to respond positively to a letter
sent by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Ma'an news agency
reported on Sunday.

Speaking with Ma'an, PA Foreign Affairs Minister Riad
al-Malki said that the Palestinians will seek
consultation from other Arab nations before deciding
the next step towards achieving an independent
Palestinian state.

Malki said that the PA "will determine the steps that
we will take according to the choices available to us"
after receiving Israel's response to the Palestinian
letter, which outlined the Palestinian position on
resuming direct peace talks with Israel.

"When we study all the options we will head to our Arab
brothers for consultation, and after this is done we
will begin to move outside," he said.

The minister also announced that Abbas is scheduled to
visit Tunisia and Libya, after the two North African
nations invited him at the recent Arab summit in Iraq.

On Saturday, an Abbas spokesperson said that the PA was
ready to restart negotiations with Israel if Jerusalem
responds positively to a list of Palestinians demands
outlined in a letter by Abbas and relayed to Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Otherwise, the PA
will resume efforts to unilaterally achieve UN
recognition of Palestinian state, and move to isolate
Israeli "occupation" policies by exposing their real
effects on Palestinians living in the West Bank, the
spokesperson warned.

"The letter demanded a full cessation of settlement
activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and Israeli
recognition of the 1967 borders," the spokesman, Nabil
Abu Rudaineh, told The Jerusalem Post. He was speaking
to reporters in Ramallah following a meeting between
Abbas and David Hale, the US envoy to the Middle East.

Abu Rudaineh said that Abbas briefed the US emissary on
the content of the letter, which was delivered to
Netanyahu last week by Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat
and Majed Faraj, head of the Palestinian General
Intelligence Service in the West Bank. It warned of the
pending collapse of the two-state solution.

"If we don't receive a positive answer, we will resume
our efforts to achieve UN recognition of a Palestinian
state. We will also pursue our efforts to isolate the
policies of the occupation and expose Israel's
ambitions in our lands, water and holy sites."

During Saturday's meeting, Abbas told Hale that he was
expecting an Israeli response to his letter within two
weeks, Abu Rudaineh said. "If the Israeli reply is
positive, this would be an encouraging sign to move in
the right direction."

Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate