'Palestinians will officially go to UN in September'

In PLO Exec. C'tee meeting, Palestinians call on all countries to support their bid for statehood based on '67 lines in the United Nations.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON
PA President Abbas at PLO Executive meeting 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)
PA President Abbas at PLO Executive meeting 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)
The Palestinian Liberation Organization late Sunday decided to take their case for statehood to the United Nations in September, making official what has been speculated about for the past year. Palestinians will ask the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 lines, membership in the United Nations and recognition of the right to self-determination in accordance with the UN charter, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
In a meeting of the PLO Executive Committee, Committee Secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the situation stems from the desire of the Palestinian people to achieve a just and comprehensive peace where the state of Palestine independently lives in peace and security with its neighbors, according to the WAFA report.
RELATED:'PA presents Quartet with 4 conditions for resumed talks' 'Erekat says Turkey to help build support for PA bid at UN'
The PLO leadership called on all countries in the world, "without exception," to support its decision to seek statehood in the United Nations, which it said is aimed at resuming negotiations based on the Arab Peace Initiative, the positions of the Quartet, US President Barack Obama's ideas and statements by the European Union.
The move came on the same day that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman departed for Croatia, Albania and Austria where he was said to be trying to convince those countries not to support a Palestinian bid for statehood in the UN in Septmeber.
Lieberman’s trip was scheduled to be followed a week later by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trip to Romania and Bulgaria with the same message. Two weeks later Netanyahu is also scheduled to travel to Poland and Hungary and try to convince them not to support the Palestinian move.
The intensive diplomatic push comes at a time when Israel is keen on getting as many countries as it can to come out publicly against the move. So far the US, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have publicly expressed reservations.
Israel, according to diplomatic officials, has set as a goal 60 countries – what some in the Foreign Ministry have called a “moral minority” – to vote against, abstain or absent themselves from the vote.