Arab League chief backs U.N. path for Palestinians

Abbas is firm on U.N. path for Palestinian statehood

The Palestinian president said on Saturday there were “no shared foundations” for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seeking U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood was his only option.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, addressing an Arab League meeting in Doha, expressed concern that taking the diplomatic step opposed by the United States and Israel could result in financial sanctions and urged Arab states to fill any gap.

While he left room for a compromise, saying a resumption of peace talks on terms acceptable to the Palestinians would avoid the U.N. move, the remarks were some of Abbas’s bleakest yet on the likelihood of more negotiations.

Abbas was speaking at a meeting of the Arab League’s peace process committee convened in the wake of major Middle East policy speeches in Washington by U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Palestinian leadership has said Netanyahu’s ideas for peace with the Palestinians, outlined in a speech to the U.S. Congress Tuesday, put more obstacles in the path of an already moribund peace process.

“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 said.

He expressed fear that the step would lead some states to “try to impose a siege upon us,” though he did not say to which governments he was referring. “We hope that there will be a safety net from the Arab states,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by Abbas is dependent on financial support from international donors including the United States and the European Union.

It also relies on customs duties collected on its behalf by Israel, which triggered a financial crisis for the PA earlier this month when the Israeli government temporarily withheld the funds following a reconciliation deal between the rival Fatah and Hamas groups.

Arab League chief backs U.N. path for Palestinians

The head of the Arab League said on Saturday the Palestinians should seek U.N. recognition for their statehood in September because negotiations with Israel have proven futile.

“The sound path is going to the United Nations and political struggle,” Amr Moussa told Reuters.

He was speaking in Doha, where Arab League member states were to meet later on Saturday to discuss Palestinian options in the wake of major policy speeches by U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Moussa said a vision presented by Netanyahu in a speech to the U.S. Congress that week had amounted to a series of “no’s.”

“I believe that negotiations have become futile in light of these no’s. What will you negotiate on?” Moussa said referring to the Netanyahu speech which the Palestinians said put more obstacles in the path of the moribund peace process.

Netanyahu said he was willing to make concessions for peace but repeated terms long rejected by the Palestinians, including an insistence that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state and accept Israel keeping settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in Doha for the meeting of the Arab League’s peace process committee, said this week he would seek U.N. recognition for Palestinian statehood if there was no breakthrough in the peace process by September.

The Palestinians currently have the status of U.N. observers without voting rights, but are hoping that at September’s General Assembly they can persuade other nations to accept them as a sovereign member.

Both Netanyahu and Obama have criticized the move, and although U.S. opposition means the Palestinians have very little chance of success, the Israelis fear the maneuvering will leave them looking increasingly vulnerable on the diplomatic front.

U.S.-brokered talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down last September in a dispute over continued Jewish settlement building in the West Bank.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 713