MIDEAST-ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS Palestinians to submit resolution for U.N. statehood bid

Record ID: 398884

  • Title: MIDEAST-ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS Palestinians to submit resolution for U.N. statehood bid
  • Date: 29th December 2014
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 29, 2014) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN CHIEF OF NEGOTIATORS, SAEB EREKAT, STANDING IN OFFICE PALESTINIAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (English) PALESTINIAN CHIEF OF NEGOTIATORS, SAEB EREKAT, SAYING: "We will submit the original draft resolution to the Security Council hoping to conclude the vote by tomorrow or the day after, before the new year. The resolution s
  • Embargoed: 13th January 2015 12:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZGGXLEIFX7XR3Y8ZF1OKCDXX
  • Story Text: Palestinians plan to submit a final draft of a statehood resolution to the United Nations (U.N.) on Monday (December 29), calling for a peace deal with Israel within a year and an end to occupation of Palestinian territories by the end of 2017, officials said.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas informed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone that he would press ahead with the initiative despite Israeli and U.S. opposition, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
    Several European countries had been pushing for a less stringent timeline that might win broader support.
    "We will submit the original draft resolution to the Security Council hoping to conclude the vote by tomorrow or the day after, before the new year. The resolution specifies the Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem its capital. Calls for a solution to all core issues including refugees in accordance with the relevant Security Council and the General Assembly Resolutions," said Palestinian Chief Of Negotiators, Saeb Erekat.
    Palestinian officials said the proposal calls for negotiations to be based on the territorial lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.
    The Palestinian Liberation Organisation said the draft resolution calls for two sovereign, democratic and secure states, Palestine and Israel.
    Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, has said its eastern border would be indefensible if it withdrew completely from the West Bank.
    A Palestinian draft, submitted to the Security Council by Jordan on Dec. 17, had called for Jerusalem to be the shared capital of Israel and a Palestinian state.
    The final proposal reverts to a harder line, saying only that East Jerusalem will be the capital of Palestine, the officials said.
    It also calls for an end to Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
    Israel has said a Security Council vote, which follows the collapse in April of U.S.-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood, would only deepen the decades-old conflict.
    It supports negotiations but rejects third-party timelines.
    "We will continue to insist on our truth, and We will continue to rebuff, vigourously, attempts to force terms that would jeopardise our security," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to the Palestinian U.N. bid, said during public remarks to his cabinet on Sunday (December 28).
    Nine Security Council votes are needed to adopt a resolution, which would then force the United States, Israel's closest ally, to decide whether to veto it.
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