Palestine ready to listen to EU, not U.S.?

PanARMENIAN.Net - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will hold separate meetings with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the EU's Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton during the Arab Peace Initiative' s meeting due in Cairo on Monday, September 12, a presidential spokesman said.

According to Nabil Abu Rudeina, Abbas is scheduled to discuss the Palestinian bid for statehood at UN with Ashton, QNA reported.

“Palestinian leadership is willing to hear EU’s position on Palestine’s UN bid,” Abbas said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared in March that he will turn to the UN for the recognition of the sovereign Palestinian state with the borders of 1965, in the territory of the West Bank of the Jordan and Gaza Strip with the capital in West Jerusalem.

The U.S. President Barack Obama administration, however, has announced publicly that it will veto any bid by the Palestinians to seek statehood recognition later this month at the United Nations, a move Palestinian President called “too late” to stop them.

The U.S. view is that Palestinian statehood should only come as a result of direct negotiations with Israel.

The Palestinian government plans to ask the Security Council for a vote on full membership status on Sept. 19. If, as now looks certain, the U.S. vetoes the bid, the Palestinians may ask for recognition from the General Assembly, where the vast majority of countries are believed to back statehood.

The General Assembly cannot grant sovereign status, but can upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s U.N. status from “observer” to “non-member state”, the same recognition the Vatican receives. This would open the way for Palestinians to join U.N. bodies and conventions, and pursue claims against Israel in the International Criminal Court.