OnIslam.net

DOHA – The Arab League plans to ask the United Nations to grant a full-fledged membership to a Palestinian state during next UN session in September, as the Arab regional body declared suspending Middle East peace negotiations until Israel is ready for talks.

The Arab League "supports the appeal to the UN asking that Palestine, within the 1967 borders, becomes a full-fledged state" of the international organization, it said in a statement cited by Agence France Presse on Saturday, May 28.

Meeting in the Qatari capital Doha, the Ministerial Committee on the Arab Peace Initiative said the 22-member Arab states will seek membership for a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, during the next UN session in September.

The committee vowed to "take all steps and make the necessary contacts to mobilize the support required from the Security Council members and political and geographical groups in the United Nations to ensure the issuance of this resolution," a statement released through Qatar News Agency (QNA) said.

The move comes after US President Barack Obama settled long disputed border issue saying that the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 with "mutually agreed swaps”.

Rebuffing Obama’s suggestion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly rejected calls for Israel’s withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders in his speech before a joint session of US congress last Wednesday.

Netanyahu also rejected dividing Jerusalem. The Palestinians want Al-Quds (Occupied East Jerusalem) as the capital of their future state.

Israel occupied Palestinian lands, including holy city of Al-Quds, along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East War.

Israel returned Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David peace accords.

In the Palestinian lands, Israel adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of the holy city, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.

It has also constructed more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.

The international community considers all settlements on the occupied land illegal.

A recent report issued earlier this year by the 25 European Union Consuls-General, who are the ambassador-level representatives to the Palestinian Authority, suggested that Al-Quds be treated as the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Suspend Negotiations

Presiding the Ministerial Committee’s meeting in Doha, Qatar said that the Middle East peace process should be suspended until Israel was ready for peace.

"We will suspend for the moment the peace process until there is a willing partner" in negotiations from the Israeli side, said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani as he opened the Arab monitoring committee meeting, AFP reported.

The Qatari premier also criticized "US hesitations that led Washington to abandon efforts to make Israel respond favorably to initiatives" for peace.

The new proposal comes as President Abbas reiterated his determination to seek the recognition at the world diplomatic body unless Israel begins negotiations on "substantial basis."

"Our option is still negotiation," Abbas said during Doha meeting.

“But it seems that because of conditions imposed by Netanyahu... we have no choice but to use the UN to get recognition of our state,” he added, repeating the warning he made soon after Netanyahu's US speech.

"We are serious in our decision to use the UN, it is not maneuvering... we will do it unless Netanyahu accepts to begin negotiations today on a substantial basis."

The Palestinian Authority has been pushing over the past few months to gain support for international recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

In the absence of peace talks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would ask the UN General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza with Occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.

Last December, several South American states recognized a Palestinian state on the 1967 lands.

The European Union didn’t rule out recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that is opposed by the United States, Israel’s closest ally.

On Friday, UN General Assembly president Joseph Deiss had said that to be recognized at the UN, a Palestinian state will need the support of all five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council.