The Palestinians submitted the final draft of a statehood resolution to the United Nations on Monday night close to midnight, calling for a peace deal with Israel within a year and an “end to occupation” of Palestinian territories by the end of 2017
The United States said on Monday it did not support a draft statehood resolution that the Palestinians plan to introduce at the United Nations, saying it would not advance the goal of peace or address Israel’s security needs.
“We don’t think this resolution is constructive,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told a regular news briefing. “We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reaching a peace agreement and for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, and those are more likely to curtail useful negotiations than to bring them to a successful conclusion.
“Further, we think that the resolution fails to account for Israel’s legitimate security needs, and the satisfaction of those needs, of course, integral to a sustainable settlement.”
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu vowed that if the international community does not oppose the Palestinians’ UN bid, Israel will.
In a meeting with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Netanyahu stressed that “Israel will oppose conditions that endanger our future.”
“We expect the entire international community – at least the responsible members of that community – to oppose vigorously this UN diktat, this UN Security Council resolution. Because what we need always is direct negotiations and not imposed conditions,” he told Pence in a meeting in Jerusalem.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas informed 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.
“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 Saeb Erekat told Reuters. Read more at Ynet News.
{Matzav.com}
