A senior Palestinian official said Tuesday that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) planed to discuss with the Arab League the stalled peace process.
Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian negotiator and a member of the Fatah party's central committee told Xinhua in an interview that the worst option of this plan is to resolve the PNA and the resignation of PNA President Mahmoud Abbas.
"This plan basically aims at gaining an international recognition of an independent Palestinian state in the United Nations," Shaath said. Israel should be responsible for obstructing the peace process, he added.
"Israel hasn't left any choice for the Palestinians after the direct peace talks failed and after all possibilities for a peaceful solution vanished," Shaath said, adding that the Palestinian leadership "won't be afraid of any Israeli reaction to obstruct its strategic movement."
Shaath revealed that the Palestinian plan consists of a series of options which "would be carried out in accordance to an organized plan that will be gradually used once all the efforts to stop Israeli settlements are exhausted."
Abbas said last week that the Palestinian leadership has seven choices: the first one is to resume the direct peace talks in case Israel accepts to fully freeze settlement construction, and the second choice is to ask the United States to recognize a Palestinian state and the third is to apply to the United Nations.
Abbas, who didn't uncover the rest of the options said that the seven choices "will be used by the Palestinians sequentially and after all the efforts to revive the peace negotiations are exhausted."
The Palestinians suspended the direct peace talks after Israel refused to extend a 10-month moratorium on freezing settlement that expired on Sept. 26.
"I don't want to say that the peace process has failed but I can say that it is obstructed due to the daily Israeli measures starting from settlement construction to imposing the blockade on the Gaza Strip and ending up with the violations in east Jerusalem, " Shaath said.
Without stopping all these measures "it won't be worth to get back to the negotiations," Shaath added. He said he was disappointed at the U.S. role "which has so far failed to change the Israeli position or exerting pressure."
"Therefore we should look for other alternatives. I hope that after congress elections the U.S. would play a serious role to commit Israel to our terms, and if this happens, we will resume the talks," Shaath said.
"If this doesn't happen, we will carry out our plans, including asking the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, or demanding the U.N. Security Council to elevate the membership of Palestine from an observer to a full membership," Shaath said.
He added that "one of the options is to apply to the U.N. Trusteeship Council. All that I mentioned are options that might be presented to the international community."
Asked if Abbas would resign from his post as the chairman of the PNA, Shaath said "this will be the last option. If we decide to dissolve the PNA, then President Abbas would consequently resign. But the hard choice is left for the stage when all attempts and options fail."
"As long as the U.S. is unable to pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it should not use the veto against any Palestinian attitude to obtain an international recognition of an independent state," he added.
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