RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Over the past few months, the Palestinian leadership has been insisting that its only choice is to approach the United Nations in September to demand a full membership.
Fifty days ahead of the annual UN General Assembly meetings in New York, observers said Palestinians will not retreat from applying to the UN.
The Palestinians announced on Thursday that they had finalized the preparations for approaching the UN through out coordination with Arab countries.
ARAB COUNTRIES' SUPPORT
Saeb Erekat, a veteran Palestinian negotiator, who attended a two-day meeting of the Arab League in Qatar, said the AL had put up a joint working plan related to approaching the UN Security Council and General Assembly and the needed steps to be followed afterwards.
"The working plan includes all the legal, political and practical measures related to the Palestinian request of a full membership from the UN Security Council and what would be the afterwards steps," Erekat said, adding "the date of applying to the UN would be decided by the Palestinian leadership later on."
Erekat stressed on the full Arab support for the Palestinians to approach the UN and demand a recognition of an Palestinian state.
According to a final statement issued at the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to carry out all measures needed to gain the largest and widest support in the UN.
PALESTINIANS DETERMINED TO APPROACH UN
Israeli Radio reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed readiness to resume negotiation on condition that Israel doesn't pull back to 1967 borders. He also said that the demographic problem between Israel and the Palestinians should be solved through peace talks.
U.S. President Barack Obama said in his speech in May that the talks between the two sides should be based on 1967 borders and an exchange of territories.
Hani al-Masri, a West Bank-based political analyst, told Xinhua that whatever the consequences of the international efforts and pressures on the Palestinian side to resume the peace talks, it would be impossible to abandon the idea of approaching the UN.
"The Palestinians prefer in this period of time to approach the UN to gain an international recognition of their independent state, " al-Masri said, adding "the Palestinians meanwhile prefer to avoid any political confrontation with the US administration."
Allam Jarrar, a political science professor at al-Najah University in Nablus in the West Bank, asserted that the only choice for the Palestinians is to go on with approaching the UN to seek independence, adding that if the Palestinians retreat from carrying out such a step, "it will be disastrous."
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