Abbas says UNSC recognition only one of many options

PA president rules out stepping down from post, dissolving PA; tells Jordanian 'al-Rai' that Palestinians need to "put Israel in a corner."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Abbas Fatah Meeting 311 (photo credit: Associated Press)
Abbas Fatah Meeting 311
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that demanding UN Security Council recognition of an independent Palestinian state is only one many options, he said in an interview to Jordanian paper al-Rai published on Sunday.
Abbas also ruled out stepping down and dissolving the PA, saying that it would bring chaos and that he is the owner of a national project that cannot be abandoned.
RELATED:Fayyad says Palestinian state possible by 2011Mitchell: US intends to pursue 'substantive' peace talks
The PA president said that the Palestinians need to "think of something that will put Israel in a corner."
In an interview aired Saturday on Channel 2, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said about the possibility of seeking UN Security Council recognition, “We are looking for a state of Palestine, not a unilateral declaration of statehood.”
But Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of the PA negotiating team and the Fatah Central Committee, seemed to be reading from a different playbook altogether, telling the London-based Asharq al- Awsat newspaper that “The Palestinian leadership made a historic concession in 1991 when it agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state on 22 percent of the historic lands of Palestine,” he said. “This state was supposed to have been established in 1999, but the years are passing by and Israel is avoiding this, which will force us to search for other methods.”