Abbas calls for Arab League meeting to discuss PA problems

Sources close to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, claim that he is angry with the failure of Arabic and Islamic states to support his plan to seek non-state membership at the UN for Palestine. The Palestinian delegation to the UN said that it has failed to get the support of other blocs within the organisation due to the silence of the Arab and Islamic countries.

The sources claim that Mr Abbas has called for the High Arabic Committee of the Arab League to convene to discuss the issue.

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“In the light of ongoing Israeli settlement expansion and the continuous Israeli effort to undermine any possibility of a peaceful solution of the Palestinian issue,” said the anonymous sources, “the PA President is going to wave the red card in the face of the Arab states to tell them that they have to fulfil their political and financial responsibilities for the Palestinian cause or it will be lost.”

A member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Wasel Yousof, told Al Quds Al Arabi: “The most important demand for the High Arabic Committee in its approaching meeting is to change its previous obligations into tangible action.”

He said that the main three points on the table are the Israeli disregard for the resolutions of the international community regarding illegal settlements; setting up practical steps for seeking non-state membership for Palestine at the UN; and discussing the financial crisis of the PA, which has paralysed all aspects of its work in the occupied West Bank.

The Arab League is due to meet in Doha on 22 July. An assistant to the League’s Secretary General said that the gathering will take tangible steps to end the financial crisis of the PA, but he refused to elaborate further.

Meanwhile, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Sa’eb Erekat, commented on the US Secretary of State’s remarks, in which she called on the Palestinian side to stick to the peace process: “The Palestinian side is tied to the peace process and it has never stopped negotiations.” He added that it is the Israelis who have destroyed the peace process by deciding to continue to build illegal settlements.