Abbas To Obama: “Heading To UN Is Not A Unilateral Move”

Wednesday October 17, 2012 07:06 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, sent Tuesday a letter to American President, Barack Obama, informing him that the Palestinians are committed to a two-state solution, and that heading to the United Nations General Assembly in not a unilateral move.

Mahmoud Abbas - File Paltoday

In his letter, Abbas also told Obama that filing an application to the United Nations to become a nonmember state is a legitimate move meant to support the legitimate rights of the Palestinians in their homeland.

Abbas said that Palestine is an occupied country, and not a disputed territory, and that heading to the United Nations does not aim at isolating Israel, but has the sole aim of achieving international recognition of this fact.

This recognition, Abbas added in his letter, makes the resumption of the peace process possible.
“After achieving this international recognition of our legitimate rights, we will be ready to resume peace talks”, Abbas said, “Only then the peace process will actually be fruitful”.

Israel and the United States imposed financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for heading to the United Nations, and claimed that applications filed at the UN, the UNRWA and other international institutions “are counterproductive moves that do not serve the efforts to resume peace talks”.

The Palestinian Authority is currently a sharp financial crisis due to financial sanctions set in place by the United States, and due to the fact that Israel is refraining from transferring Tax money it collects on border terminal on behalf of the P.A as the Palestinians do not have control over border terminals in the West Bank.

The P.A said that Israel is using peace talks in order to resume its violations and attacks against the Palestinians people, and is ongoing with its illegal construction and expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in and around occupied East Jerusalem, in direct violation of International Law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions.

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