Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that the UN has an essential role to help the Palestinians establish their statehood.
"We will go to the UN to get the recognition of our independent state," Abbas said after meeting Tony Blair, the envoy of the Middle East Quartet, in Ramallah.
He added that an end to Israel's occupation and the creation of the Palestinian state will enable the Palestinian people to live in peace and stability with their Israeli neighbors.
The Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations stopped in September 2010 four weeks after the United States brokered them. The Palestinians walked out of the talks, protesting the resumption of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.
Abbas decided to move to the UN as a response to the settlement building.
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