Palestine to Present Revised Statehood Resolution to UN
Palestine is to submit a final draft of its statehood resolution calling for an end to the occupation and the creation of a state by 2017 to the United Nations Security Council, senior Palestinian Authority officials said Monday.
The officials clarified that the draft resolution is not new, but rather a revision of the resolution submitted to the council by Jordan earlier this month. The revised resolution sharpens the Palestinian stance on Jerusalem, future borders and Palestinian refugees.
At the same time, the officials said, if the resolution goes to a vote, it will take place Wednesday – if at all – depending on whether the Palestine can get majority support at the council.
A senior Palestinian official said that the revised version would be submitted Monday following the meeting of the Arab group at the United Nations.
“Today the Arab group will meet in New York, and we will submit the original draft resolution to the Security Council hoping to conclude the vote by tomorrow or the day after,” senior Palestinian official SaebErekat told Reuters.
Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State John Kerry by phone that he would press ahead with the initiative despite Israeli and US opposition, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported. The Americans, meanwhile, prefer to delay the vote until after Israeli elections in March.
“The draft resolution calls for the resumption of negotiations to solve all final status issues by no later than 12 months after the adoption of the resolution and ensures the end of the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will come no later than the end of 2017,” the Palestine Liberation Organization said.
“It calls for two sovereign, democratic and secure states, Palestine and Israel.”
A Palestinian draft, submitted to the Security Council by Jordan on December 17, had called for Jerusalem to be the shared capital of the Zionist entity and the Palestinian state.
Al- Manar News
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