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Abbas to address Palestinians on UN bid Friday

12 September 2011 17:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the Palestinian people Friday and inform them that the request for a UN membership would be submitted through the Security Council, a Palestinian official said Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Abbas will reveal all the details of the plan to obtain recognition, and the request would be submitted to the Security Council despite U.S. opposition, the official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said.

The request is most likely to be blocked by the United States, which has clearly threatened to use veto against it.

Abbas will also emphasize that the Palestinians are sticking to peace talks with Israel, and the negotiations can be resumed after the Palestinians are done with the UN recognition, however, Israel and the U.S. administration want the recognition of the Palestinian state to be a result of a negotiated agreement.

The PLO official said Abbas wants the negotiations to resume according to an international reference that a Palestinian state is established within the border lines before the 1967 war and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinians also want Israel to halt settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank last year caused a new round of U.S.- brokered negotiations to break down.

The official said the Palestinian leadership will not suspend or retract its decision to seek recognition through the United Nations, saying that there is nothing on the ground encouraging for the amendment of that decision.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki said earlier that Abbas will brief the Arab League’s follow-up committee when it meets in Cairo to tell its members that the Palestinian bid for the UN membership would be through the Security Council, not the General Assembly.

The meeting of the AL’s committee, which oversees relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, is going to be the last one before the Palestinians’ move to the UN. "It aims to put the final touches on the nature of the Arab and Palestinian steps at the UN, " Al-Maliki said.