LOC18:44
15:44 GMT
CAIRO, Sept 14 (KUNA) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
reiterated on Wednesday that the Palestinian and Arab decision to go to the
General Assembly of the United Nations and the UN Security Council in order to
obtain full membership for Palestine in the international organization was an
"irreversible Arab decision", noting that resorting to the United Nations is
not a unilateral step.
Abbas said during a meeting with the Egyptian newspaper editors that "Our
decision to go to the United Nations does not mean we are against the
negotiations and we decided to do so because there is no new in the
negotiations".
"However, we are not distant from the Israelis and I personally met with
Israeli President and Defense Minister Ehud Barak more than once, but they did
not come with anything new in terms of pushing forward the peace process", he
added.
And on future steps after going to the United Nations, Abbas said,
"Whatever the result, we will forward the matter to the Palestinian leadership
to take the appropriate decision."
In response to a question about the feasibility of taking a symbolic step
to go to the United Nations and maybe collide with the United States, Abbas
said, "This move is not symbolic and when we are recognize us as a country we
become a country under occupation by a Member of the United Nations and
negotiate with Israel as a state and this makes the case similar to the land
of Sinai before and the Syrian and Lebanese territories occupied by Israel.".
(end).
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KUNA 141844 Sep 11NNNN