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Palestine seeks UN statehood recognition

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-16 10:36

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) holds contacts with Washington to resume the Middle East peace process and at the same time it seeks the United Nations' recognition of an independent Palestinian statehood, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.

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Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement sent to reporters that the PNA and the United States are holding contacts to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that have been stalled for nearly a year, adding that the PNA is working to snatch UN recognition of a Palestinian statehood.

"We are now seeking to lobby a big political base to get a resolution recognizing the state of Palestine to be established on the Palestinian territories that Israel has captured during the 1967 Middle East war with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Erekat.

His remarks were made on the occasion of the Palestine's Independence Day which late leader Yasser Arafat declared in 1988."There is no need to declare a new independence day, what is needed is that the UN Security Council announcing its recognition of the state," said Erekat.

Calls for recognizing the Palestinian statehood have increased recently after peace negotiations between the PNA and Israel have come to a deadlock.

The continuation of the Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the two territories that -- along with the Gaza Strip -- will form the Palestinian statehood, has thwarted mutual negotiations that were intending to achieve the two-state solution.

Erekat explained that Israel occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem "and tries to boost the idea of statehood with provisional borders."

The Palestinians refuse the proposals of statehood with temporary boundaries that would be subject to more negotiations.

Meanwhile, Erekat said that President Abbas will visit Latin American states "to gather the support of the Latin group to the Palestinian efforts to get the UN recognition of the statehood."

More than 100 countries recognize "Palestine" but the United States, France and Britain, all UN Security Council permanent members, are not among these countries.

Earlier, Nabil Shaath, an official of Abbas's Fatah party, said that some of the European states that did not recognize "Palestine" in 1988 "are ready to think seriously now in this issue and there are discussions with the Europeans about the need to recognize the Palestinian state."

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