THE Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has said that the Palestinians are determined to seek recognition of a Palestinian state from the United Nations this September.
‘The issue of going to the UN is decisive and it doesn’t endure any play or manoeuvring,’ Abbas said during a meeting of the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah movement in Ramallah on Monday night.
At the same time, Abbas called for the peace talks with Israel to be restarted. They collapsed in September 2010, four weeks after the resumption of Zionist settlement construction.
Abbas also told the Fatah Council that he is serious about implementing the reconciliation agreement that has just been agreed between the Fatah and Hamas movements last week. He said: ‘The priority is now to form a government of independents and then the formation of committees to implement the agreement.’
In Paris, the visiting Israeli premier Netanyahu said that Israel won’t accept a UN diktat to resolve disputes with the Palestinians, and believed only negotiations can achieve regional peace. He is however unwilling to halt all Zionist settlement building – the only measure that could enable Abbas to argue that the talks should be resumed.
The Israeli President Shimon Peres meanwhile has said in an interview that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmud Abbas is ‘absolutely’ still a peace partner for Israel, despite the decision to form a unity government with Hamas.
His statement ran counter to the Israeli government’s position of breaking with the PNA since the Palestinian reconciliation pact was signed in Cairo last week.
In fact, in response to the Unity agreement, Netanyahu has halted the transfer of funds to the Palestine Authority leaving Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to complain that since Monday, May 2nd, for the first time since 2007, the PA is not able to pay salaries to official workers.
The United States, meanwhile, has said that Israel’s decision to withhold Palestinian Authority funds ‘following the Hamas-Fatah agreement is premature’.
US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said ‘We believe it’s premature to make any decisions. What’s important now is that the Palestinians ensure implementation in a way that advances the prospects of peace.
‘We are looking to see what this reconciliation agreement looks like in practical terms, before we make any decisions about future assistance.’
The US administration hinted that the warnings of some members of Congress to cut the aid to the Palestinian Authority following their agreement with Hamas would not be constructive at this point. It insisted that it is unwilling to give up its special relationship with Abbas.
Toner explained: ‘We understand these concerns, and I would just say, as the new Palestinian government’s formed, we’ll assess it based on its policies and we’ll determine the implications for our assistance.’ Toner added that training the Palestinian police force was ‘worthwhile’ as ‘they are an effective force and they have made significant gains in providing security’.
The US is still hoping that by hook or by crook Abbas can rescue US and Israeli fortunes after the revolutionary decision to unite the Palestinians.
In fact, the unity drive came from the masses of Palestinian youth, who forced Fatah and Hamas to bury the hatchet, and won the support of imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouthi for their struggle.
They are not going to go away, In fact, there are moves on hand to form a shadow government in case the new unity regime shows any tendency to crumble in front of the US and Israel.
The message is that the Palestinian revolution is on the march, and that march will not end until Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state, with the Zionist settlements put an end to and the refugees exercising their right to return.
To emphasise this revolutionary fact, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be marching to Jerusalem on June 5th to lay the basis for demanding that the UN recognises their state.
