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Abbas: We reject Kerry's requested delay for UN Security Council plan

October 17, 2014 at 10:37 am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared his intention to stick to his plan of going to the UN Security Council at the end of this month, despite a request from US Secretary of State John Kerry to postpone the move until the beginning of next year, Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday.

In a speech during his meeting with Palestinian businessmen in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Anadolu quoted Abbas as saying that: “Kerry requested [the delay] during a meeting between the two of us in Cairo, on the sidelines of the Conference on the Reconstruction of Gaza,” which was held last Sunday in Egypt.

However, Abbas added that, “We are going ahead with our plan to go to the UN Security Council for setting a timetable to end the Israeli occupation.”

“What we want from the UN Security Council is what is included in the American project of the two-state solution, and nothing more.”

Commenting on the pressures he is facing to postpone the move, Abbas explained that: “The machine has indeed been switched on. They tell us to wait a little bit prior to submitting the Palestinian decision before the UN Security Council. But this statement is part of an Indian movie that I have seen many times before.”

The Palestinian Authority and Arab states recently submitted a draft resolution to the 15 member states of the UN Security Council calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of the territories occupied in 1967 by November 2016, including a beginning of the demarcation of the borders and reaching an agreement on all the issues related to the final solution, with no exception, including Jerusalem, refugees, water and illegal settlements. The draft was presented before Sweden announced its intention to recognise the Palestinian state and the majority of British MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of a non-binding parliamentary resolution calling on the British government to take recognise the state of Palestine.

In his speech to the business leaders, Abbas told them: “We are meeting with a variety of businessmen and those working in the private sector whom we completely rely on in building this country and its economy. And in order for us to have a real state, we need you and your brothers and many others who have built the Arab world and contributed greatly to building and elevating its position. So talking about our Palestine, only one state, I believe you are capable of building this country.”

The Palestinian Authority president also commented on the situation in the Gaza Strip, saying, “We are embarking upon a difficult mission, which is the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” noting that “the government of national reconciliation is the entity that will be responsible, together with the competent authorities, for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the management of life there.”

In this regard, he explained that the Palestinian leadership “has informed the world that the reconciliation government is the entity taking care of the aid donations and no other body is in charge of this task, as it will be the only body delivering the aid to the correct address.”

“We’re responsible enough to prevent any wastage, looting, pillaging, as well as, frankly, preventing such donations from going to the wrong place.”

Haaretz newspaper recently quoted an Israeli political official as saying that Kerry is working on developing a new initiative for the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, but without being able to get an immediate response from the American side on this.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority distributed a draft resolution among the 15 members of the UN Security Council as a prelude to its formal submission to request the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by November 2016 and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The UN General Assembly agreed, through a vote that took place on 29 November 2012, to upgrade Palestinian representation in the international organisation from a “permanent observer status” to “a non-member observer state”, with 138-9 in favour and 41 nations abstaining from voting, including Britain.