Middle East
Abbas: Palestine to go to UN in September
Abbas determined to take diplomatic campaign to UN after Netanyahu rules out
peace negotiations based on 1967 borders.
Last Modified: 25 May 2011 12:11
Abbas described Netanyahu's speech to the US congress as 'negative' [Reuters]
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said that without a renewal of
peace talks with Israel, the Palestinians will seek UN recognition.
Abbas's comments, on Wednesday, came a day after a major speech by Benjamin
Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister.
"Our first choice is negotiations, but if there is no progress before September
we will go to the United Nations," Abbas said, slamming Netanyahu's speech to
the US Congress on Tuesday, which, he said, was devoid of any new incentive to
restart peace talks.
The Palestinian leader said Netanyahu's speech only served to add obstacles on
the road to peace and contained "errors and distortions".
'Painful compromises'
The Israeli leader, who addressed Congress on the last day of a trip to
Washington, said he was willing to make "painful compromises" for peace.
But he ruled out a division of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees,
and the possibility of using the borders that existed before 1967 as a basis
for peace negotiations.
Earlier, in a key policy speech on Thursday, Barack Obama, the US president,
had called for new talks based on the lines in place before the 1967 Six Day
War.
But Netanyahu used the trip to reject the 1967 lines as "indefensible" and
insisted that Israel would never accept them as a basis for negotiations.
Officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the speech had only added more
"obstacles" on the path to peace.
Meanwhile, Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers said Netanyahu had laid down conditions
which were "impossible" for the Palestinians to meet.
"There is nothing new in Netanyahu's speech except that he is adding obstacles
on the road towards a genuine, serious, lasting and comprehensive peace," said
Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
1967 borders
Peace, Rudeina said, required international benchmarks such as recognition of
the borders of 1967 as the basis for any peace negotiations.
Jibril Rajoub, a senior official of Abbas's Fatah movement, told the AFP news
agency that the address revealed the "true face" of Netanyahu and his ruling
right-wing Likud party, which he described as "a danger to regional stability
and international peace".
And Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip,
said it proved Netanyahu "doesn't want any peace process and that he is setting
impossible conditions for the Palestinians to meet."
He also said that Netanyahu was "trying to deceive the world by speaking of the
possibility of recognising a Palestinian state while destroying its
foundations" by rejecting a return to the 1967 borders, by refusing to give up
East Jerusalem, and by ruling out any return for the Palestinian refugees.
The Israeli leader had been expected to make some kind of gesture to prevent
the Palestinians from pursuing a diplomatic campaign to win UN recognition, in
a move expected to take place in September.
But Netanyahu said: "The Palestinian attempt to impose a settlement through the
United Nations will not bring peace. It should be forcefully opposed by all
those who want to see this conflict end."
Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh said the speech had left Palestinians
with one choice - "to go to the UN in September, to the General Assembly".
Fatah-Hamas deal
The Israeli leader also took aim at the recently-signed reconciliation deal
between Abbas's secular Fatah movement and Hamas, which does not recognise the
state of Israel.
"I say to President Abbas: Tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and
negotiate. Make peace with the Jewish state," he said.
"And if you do, I promise you this: Israel will not be the last country to
welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations - it will be
the first."
But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed his remarks as "arrogant."
"The true response to this arrogant speech which denies Palestinian rights
should be the complete ending of all negotiation and the implementation of
reconciliation as soon as possible," Zuhri said.
Source:
Agencies
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