WEST BANK: Mohammad Shtayeh, a top aide to Palestinian President Mohammad Abbas says the Palestinians are pushing ahead with bid for statehood at the United Nations

Record ID: 561030

  • Title: WEST BANK: Mohammad Shtayeh, a top aide to Palestinian President Mohammad Abbas says the Palestinians are pushing ahead with bid for statehood at the United Nations
  • Date: 14th September 2011
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 13, 2011) (REUTERS) MOHAMMAD SHTAYEH A TOP ABBAS AIDE SAT AT PRESS CONFERENCE PALESTINIAN FLAG SHTAYEH (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOHAMMAD SHTAYEH A TOP ABBAS AIDE AND MEMBER OF PLO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SAYING "We are going to the United Nations, we are going to the Security Council. We are going to ask for full membership for the Palestinian state on the borders of 1967." JOURNALIST SITTING MORE OF BRIEFING
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA58RHHT99NXAJ6JUIMZLDP1R7J
  • Story Text: Palestinians will take their bid for an independent state to the United Nations Security Council, Mohammad Shtayeh a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday (September 13).
    "We are going to the United Nations, we are going to the Security Council. We are going to ask for full membership for the Palestinian state on the borders of 1967," Shtayeh told reporters during a briefing held in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    Israel is lobbying against the Palestinian bid, which it sees as an effort to isolate and delegitimize it and extend the conflict into new arenas such as the International Criminal Court.
    The Palestinians are now U.N. observers without voting rights. To become a full member, their bid would have to be approved by the U.N. Security Council, where the United States has said it will veto it.
    The United States and Israel argue that issues such as Palestinian statehood should be decided by the two sides at the negotiating table rather than at the United Nations.
    Two senior U.S. envoys will return to the Middle East this week in hopes of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and averting a Palestinian bid to seek U.N. recognition of their statehood, sources familiar with the matter said.
    The Palestinians are seeking an independent state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem -- land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
    The United States said for the first time last Thursday (September 8) that it would use its veto in the Security Council to stop any Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership if the matter went ahead at the next General Assembly, which opens on Sept. 19.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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