Spain To Recognize Palestinian State Before September

Tuesday May 31, 2011 16:42 by Kevin Murphy - IMEMC and Agencies

Spanish Consul General in East Jerusalem, Alfonso Manuel Portales, has announced Spain will recognise a Palestinian state before September.

The announcement came after a meeting between the Spanish official and Fatah Executive Council member and director of international affairs Dr. Nabeel Sha’ath. Portales also said that Spain is encouraging other European countries to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN in September.

PA Minister of Prsioner Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, continued to lobby for support for the Palestinian move for statehood among the non aligned states of the UN at a meeting of 137 representatives of the Non Aligned States Movement. An official statement of the body endorsed Palestinian calls and condemned the Israeli practise of random internment of Palestinian political activists.

The road to September for Palestinian leaders will begin in mid July, according to PA documents seen by Hareetz, when the PA will present an application to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for full UN membership based on 1967 borders.

The Secretary General passes on this request to the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, which in July will be Germany. The security council in turn will convene a special committee on the matter who will report back to Council members no later than Aug 10th.

The US will most likely veto the request when put to a vote in the Security Council as indicated by US President Barrack Obama. While the PA recognises this, they aim to force the US to isolate itself by exercising its veto at Security Council level.This will prevent the any internationally recognized Palestinian state from gaining full UN membership.

The PA will then go on to request a recognition of statehood by the General Assembly without full UN membership.

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