Ashrawi: Going to UN aims to change dynamics

PLO Executive Committee member and lawmaker, Hanan Ashrawi, Tuesday told quartet envoy Tony Blair and representatives of the Visegrad Group of states, or V4 countries, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, that going to the United Nations aims to change the dynamics on the ground. "By going to the UN, we want to change the current dynamic on the ground in which illegal and unilateral Israeli measures are destroying the two-state solution, and challenge today''s prevailing culture of impunity and exceptionalism that allows Israel to act outside the law," she said, according to a statement issued by her office. Ashrawi met Blair in Jerusalem to discuss the latest developments pertaining to a projected quartet statement, as well as Palestine’s bid for UN membership. Earlier in the day, she met with the V4 delegation to discuss Palestine’s membership to the UN. The V4 delegation included political directors of the foreign ministries of each state, as well as heads of mission. Ashrawi expressed her appreciation to each of the V4 countries for their recognition of Palestine in 1988, and stressed the importance of their continuing support in the lead up to Palestine’s application for UN membership. "Support for Palestine’s membership to the UN is a positive move in the interests of peace," Ashrawi said. She emphasized her desire to see an upgrading of relations between Palestine and each of the member states of the Visegrad Group (V4) as well as the European Union as a whole. She said that the PLO would continue working in close consultation with all its friends and allies.