WEST BANK: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raises prospect of dissolving the Palestinian Authority if peace deal cannot not be achieved with Israel
Record ID:
561094
WEST BANK: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raises prospect of dissolving the Palestinian Authority if peace deal cannot not be achieved with Israel
- Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raises prospect of dissolving the Palestinian Authority if peace deal cannot not be achieved with Israel
- Date: 5th December 2010
- Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 1, 2010) (REUTERS) CURTAIN OPENING AT CEREMONY FOR A NEW PRESIDENTIAL BUILDING ABBAS AND OFFICIALS APPLAUDING VARIOUS OF ABBAS AND OFFICIALS AT CEREMONY, ABBAS CEMENTING STONE INTO WALL PALESTINIAN FLAG FLYING
- Embargoed: 20th December 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAE5HV7ZQ35X0F715DIELXNHS4F
- Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raises the prospect of dissolving the Palestinian Authority if a peace deal cannot not be achieved with Israel, and if the world does not recognise a Palestinian state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raised the prospect on Friday (December 3) of dissolving the Palestinian Authority if a peace deal could not be achieved with Israel and the world did not recognise a Palestinian state.
In a television interview, Abbas said that if Israel failed to halt settlement building and the U.S.-backed negotiations broke down, he would push for an end to the limited Palestinian self-rule in occupied territory.
"I cannot accept, upon my honour, to remain the president of an authority that doesn't exist, because practically and from an international perspective, we don't exist," Abbas said, referring to Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank.
Pressed by his questioner if he meant he would dissolve the Palestinian Authority, he said that he would not accept the situation to remain as is.
The Palestinian Authority was established after an interim peace deal with Israel in 1993 gave Palestinians limited autonomy in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, where Palestinians want to establish a state.
Palestinian officials have voiced increasing frustration with a stalemate in Washington-sponsored peace talks with Israel which hit an impasse shortly after they resumed in September over the issue of Jewish settlements.
Abbas reiterated a Palestinian demand to halt Jewish settlement building Palestinians say deprives them of land for a viable state.
Israel's pro-settler ruling coalition has refused to stop the construction, saying the borders of a state must be negotiated alongside security issues, and sees the demand as an attempt to set preconditions for peace talks.
By suggesting he would seek to dissolve the self-rule arrangement if settlement building didn't stop, Abbas seemed to be trying to press for world recognition of a state, to bypass the negotiations process.
He said that if Israel would not freeze settlements for three months, as Washington has proposed, he would ask the U.S. and the United Nations to recognise Palestinian statehood.
If such recognition was not forthcoming, he would consider dissolving the Palestinian Authority, Abbas said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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