Palestinians going ahead with UN statehood bid

Saeb said granting UN membership to Palestine could bring the side back to negotiating table.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has said that with no renewal of peace talks on the horizon,the Palestinians would pursue their unilateral bid for recognition in September.

“I say that if negotiations have failed we will go to the United Nations for membership,” Abbas told a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and his Fatah party.

“Until now there have been no new incentives to return to negotiations,” he said.

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The meeting,in the West Bank city of Ramallah where Abbas has his headquarters,was called to make preparations for the UN campaign.

Abbas had indicated that the Palestinians would be willing to give up the September bid for recognition of a Palestinian state if long dormant peace talks with Israel could be resurrected.

While many states have indicated they will support the bid,including France and Britain,it has faced strong opposition from Israel,the United States and Germany,who said any progress toward a Palestinian state must be made through a negotiated agreement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said that granting UN membership to a Palestinian state could actually help bring the sides back to the negotiating table.

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“We do not think that there is a contradiction between the two demands,” he told AFP. “This measure is inevitable if (the international community) wants to preserve the peace process.”

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ground to a halt in September 2010 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.