Mahmoud Abbas

"LandepNews"

Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority proposed Israel and the United States to freeze its pursuit for statehood with the UN agencies until the end of January in exchange for unblocking the funds, an European diplomat revealed on Thursday. The discussion was discussed by the Israeli PM’s special envoy to London, Issac Molho, who met in secret with US representatives David Hale and Dennis Ross. According to the diplomat, the Palestinian president intends to complete the process of recognition of statehood by the United Nations.
Mahmoud Abbas is planning to ask for a vote in the Security Council in December even though he knows he does not stand a chance to win the vote, as it was made clear by the decision of admittance committee not to recommend Palestine to the Security Council to be voted as the 194th state.
Even so, the Palestinian Authority is willing to freeze the bid for membership in the UN agencies, such as World Health Organization, and World Trade Organization. Furthermore, they are willing to stop the procedure that would allow them to update their observer status by the United Nations.
Israeli sources confirmed that their representative met with the American representatives to discuss the matter, while a British source said that Molho also met with a prominent Arab figure.
Sources also say that PM Netanyahu proposed, during a cabinet meeting on Monday, to unblock the funds for the Palestinians but that he had to back down because of the opposition manifested by members of the cabinet.
Israel refused to collect taxes for the Palestinian Authority after the bid of statehood in September, when the PA demanded that the Palestinian Territories be recognized as the 194th country of the world.
The application was passed to the Security Council, which made verification to see if the state could be considered eligible for the status of member to the UN. The admission committee is said to have considered that the Palestinians are not a peace loving nation and that their statehood is not fit to accommodate a state.
Consequently, the vote was postponed in the Security Council, where the PA did not obtain the necessary 9 votes out of 15 that would make it possible for the vote to pass. If 9 votes had been in favor, the United States would have had to use its veto, which would have damaged its relations in the Middle East. Either way, the vote in the Security Council would not have brought Palestinians the status they wanted.
Meanwhile, Palestinians obtained a success in the UNESCO agency of the UN, where its bid for statehood has been approved, triggering a response from the United States, which cut off its contribution to the agency’s funding, that is 22 percent, placing it in the impossibility to function, and the response of Israel, which submitted Palestinian authorities to further economic sanctions.
Even so, the state of Israel will be compelled at some point to reopen the cash flow to the Palestinian Authority, since many officials pointed out that the PA is the most suitable dialogue partner of Israel, and if the Palestinian problem is to be solved any time soon through dialogue, it can only be done with the help of the Palestinian Authority.
This became clear when the foreign minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman lashed out at the PA president Mahmoud Abbas, in an action that remained solitary, with no support from other members of the cabinet.
Lieberman said on that occasion that Abbas was the main obstacle to peace, and that it would be better if he stepped down as he had threatened on more than one occasion. He accused Abbas of being only interested in how history would remember him and his personal comfort.
The Palestinians interpreted the words uttered by Lieberman as a threat to their leader’s live, while Israeli officials reminded that the PA must not be let to crumble, because it would bury the chances of peace with it.
It would seem that this proposition would change the plans of the meeting between the leaders of Fatah and Hamas, scheduled for next week, when the two leaders would discuss the forming of a unity government as part of the preparations for the next May’s general elections.
On the occasion of this meeting the fate of incumbent PA prime minister Salam Fayyad is to be decided, considering that up until now Abbas could not change Fayyad, as Hamas requested, because he was a guarantee of the American and Israeli funding.
Now that they want the money from the Americans and the Israelis, it is possible that the new unity government would have Fayyad as its prime minister.

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