RAMALLAH, September 4, 2011 (WAFA) – PLO Executive Committee Member, Saeb Erekat, Sunday denied claims of US initiatives or plans made to the Palestinian Authority in order to resume negotiations with Israel, in an interview with a local radio station.
Talks with US administrations continue whereas President Mahmoud Abbas will meet the Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, Tony Blair, on Tuesday, but the Palestinian leadership didn’t receive any plans or initiatives from US or the Quartet for resuming negotiations, he added.
Erekat, in response to New York Times newspaper’s allegations that a US plan to resume peace talks with Israel was introduced to PA, reiterated that “the Palestinian bid to gain full United Nations membership of a Palestinian state doesn’t contradict the peace process and resuming negotiations.”
“Heading to UN is part of a Palestinian strategy to establish a Palestinian state within 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital, to the contrary of Netanyahu’s strategy that aims to maintain the situation as it is and depower PA’s legal, political and security governance,” Erekat added.
He clarified that heading to UN doesn’t aim to declare independence, which was done in 1988 in Algeria, or to gain international recognition of the Palestinian state, which is a matter of sovereignty for each individual state, but to obtain a full UN membership of a Palestinian state based on the British Mandate resolution (1922) that established a legal stance of Palestine, closer to independence and self-determination right, the UN General Assembly resolution (181).
Heading to UN will not stop occupation or settlement directly, but a Palestinian state within 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital will be a “state under occupation” and subjected to Geneva Fourth Convention, qualifying the state to demand international protection and establishing one reference for negotiations, which is scheduling the withdrawal along with security arrangements, Erekat added.
He went on saying that consequently, Palestinians will exercise their right in self-determination, will have the right to join international organizations whereas Palestinian prisoners will be treated as “war prisoners.”
Erekat reiterated PLO’s stance as the diplomatic, political, legal and economical governor of the Palestinians and in control of the final negotiations. He said that the Palestinian refugees issue will be negotiated based on UN resolution (194) and the Right to Return.
He assured that the Palestinians have never been supported by the international community and Israel has never been in an international isolation as now.
In a related matter, Fatah movement’s spokesman in Europe, Jamal Nazzal, Sunday said that Fatah didn’t receive European conditions to support the Palestinian leadership in September, especially the bid to gain full United Nations membership of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, in a press release.
R.Q.
