Arabs set to call for UN Security Council vote on Palestinian state
CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers met yesterday to agree a draft resolution setting a deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state and to agree on a date to present it to the United Nations Security Council for a vote.
In October, the Palestinians informally shared a draft resolution with Arab states and some council members, calling for an end to Israeli occupation by November 2016. The text was not formally circulated to the full 15nation Security Council, a move that can only be done by a council member. It was unclear at the time if it would be put to a vote. Arab states have already given their blessings to the idea of presenting a resolution to the Security Council but had yet to agree a finalized draft and set a date to present it.
Speaking at the opening of an Arab League session in Cairo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the resolution would be discussed “in order to deliver it to the Security Council.” Arab League chief Nabil AlAraby appeared to suggest that the final draft would be endorsed and sent to a vote. “It is natural that Palestine is heading to the UN Security Council to issue a resolution setting a deadline for ending the occupation,” he said.
Palestinians seek statehood in the Israelioccupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as their capital - lands captured by Israel in a 1967 war. Israel accepts the idea of a “two-state solution” of an independent and democratic Palestinian state living alongside Israel, but has not accepted the 1967 borders as the basis for final negotiations, citing security and other concerns.
The latest round of efforts to forge a twostate solution collapsed in April and relations between the two sides have worsened since a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip this summer. Palestinians have since said they see little choice but to push unilaterally for statehood.
Diplomats have said that France, Britain and Germany are preparing a separate text to end the conflict, which could be accelerated if the Palestinian draft is put forward. France warned on Friday it would recognize a Palestinian state if a final international effort to overcome the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians failed. French parliamentarians will hold a symbolic vote on December 2 on whether the French government should recognize Palestine as a state, after similar moves in Sweden, Britain, Ireland and Spain.
Peace initiative
The Arab Peace Initiative Committee (APIC) convened yesterday at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, under chairmanship of Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled AlHamad Al-Sabah. “The committee’s meeting will discuss the developments of the Palestinian issue and ongoing Israeli malpractices and violations in the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem,” Arab League Deputy Secretary General Ahmed bin Helli told reporters before the meeting.
The committee, he added, will also tackle the European stance toward recognizing a Palestinian state and Arab steps should be taken to help Palestine get a Security Council resolution regarding setting a time to end Israeli occupation and implement the aims of the Arab peace initiative. The committee chaired by Kuwait includes Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, UAE and Oman.