Palestinians intensify steps for statehood bid in UN

The Palestinian leadership announced on Saturday that it decided to intensify its internal and foreign movements in the coming days to back the Palestinian bid to the United Nations Security Council for full membership of Palestinian statehood in 1967 territories. A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had already begun these steps, adding that Abbas will start an international tour this week for earning the largest support for the bid. On Friday evening, Abbas met with various Arab and foreign diplomats at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), said the official, saying that he discussed with them his upcoming steps to earn the enough support for passing the bid. The bid for a statehood, submitted to the UN last week, was debated by the Security Council, then it was moved to a membership committee to prepare it for voting. The Palestinians believe now they have eight out of 15 Security Council members who will vote for the bid. However, the Palestinians would need at least nine votes in the council, to oblige Washington to veto the bid in order to prevent the vote from going to the General Assembly. Well-informed sources also said that Abbas will fly to Europe this week, and will address a speech at the headquarters of the European Union in Strasbourg, then he would travel to Latin America to visit in Honduras, Columbia and Portugal. Reyad Mansour, the diplomatic representative of Palestine in the UN, told Palestinian Radio "Voice of Palestine" that he expects that the membership committee in the Security Council will end checking the bid soon "unless the bid is referred to other UN legal establishments for more debates." On Friday, Abbas had also chaired a meeting of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee to discuss the statement of the International Quartet for peace in the Middle East, which called on Israel and the Palestinians for resuming unconditioned direct peace talks soon. Palestinian sources said that the PLO executive committee decided to restart the direct peace talks with Israel only with a full suspension of Jewish settlement building and a recognition of a Palestinian state on 1967 territories. "This final official response will be conveyed to the Quartet Committee," said the sources. "We won't accept holding any talks less than the normal standards." Meanwhile, Abbas had also on Friday held a meeting with Palestinian figures closed to Islamic Hamas movement in the West Bank and discussed with them on pushing forward the Palestinian reconciliation agreement. However, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza told Xinhua on Saturday that Abbas held the meeting without coordinating with the Hamas leadership, adding "no official meetings held between Hamas and Abbas over the past few days." The deposed premier of Hamas de facto government in Gaza Ismail Haneya had said on Friday that his movement doesn't oppose a Palestinian state, but it opposes making concessions on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, mainly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees.