RAMALLAH, September 25, 2011 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday said that he will not accept any postponing in discussing the Palestinian bid to recognize Palestine as a full member in the United Nations Security Council.  

He said in an interview with al-Hayat (London) that he will discuss with the Palestinian Authority (PA) the suggestions to resume negotiations with Israel.

Abbas undermined the Israeli threats, saying “We will not give in to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to attack Palestinians or cancel agreements and we will fight with all popular peaceful means.”

In reference to his speech at the UN, Abbas said “I felt that we are witnessing a historical bid, a legitimate and true request, which is a full member state in the UN as the rest of the whole world’s countries.”

“While I was giving my speech, I felt that if the people were to vote for the request, we would have won by majority. Unfortunately, there are sides wanting to prevent the Palestinians from having their own state,” he said.

He insisted that PA will not directly reject any option, however, will study all options thoroughly based on PA’s basic conditions, which include freezing settlement activities and establishing a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders. “We will not accept any political games to hinder our goal,” he affirmed.

He said that PA appreciates the French initiative President, Nicolas Sarkozy had proposed, but its final answer will be after PA discusses it.

Abbas said that Hamas’ position regarding the bid is ‘sad’; they claimed that this bid was a unilateral move because PA didn’t discuss it with them! Hamas should have at least tried to understand the bid before condemning it as a ‘contradicting statement.’

He said that there have been threats to cut financial aid, yet the Americans must explain why they would do that. “Until then, every session has a different discussion.”

M.H./F.R.