PA to proceed with UN recognition bid

The Palestinians will move ahead with their quest to win UN recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, said Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Shaath, rebuffing US President Barack Obama's warning that such a move would be pointless.

Shaath spoke after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a White House meeting Friday, rejected Obama's call to use the pre-1967 war lines as the basis for border talks with the Palestinians.

Shaath and Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said late Friday that Netanyahu's statements make it clear the Israeli leader is not a partner for peace, suggesting there is no point in returning to negotiations.

"I don't think we can talk about a peace process with a man who says the 1967 lines are an illusion, that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel, undivided, and he does not want a single (Palestinian) refugee to go back," Erekat said. "What is left to negotiate about?"

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not given a formal response to the parameters for a peace deal Obama laid out in a Mideast speech on Thursday. He is consulting by phone with Arab leaders, plans to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II later Saturday and then convene the leaders of the PLO and his Fatah movement later in the week before giving a response, Erekat said.

'Escalate diplomatic efforts'

Erekat said it's too soon to say whether the Palestinians will continue with their quest for UN recognition in September. A bid to become a UN member requires approval not just from the General Assembly, where the Palestinians might win the needed majority, but also from the UN Security Council where the US might veto such a step.

In his speech Thursday, Obama warned that "symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state."

However, Shaath said after the Netanyahu-Obama meeting that "we will escalate our diplomatic efforts to get the recognition of the Palestinian state." Shaath noted that Obama didn't threaten a veto.

"We still hope that he will not do so, and that he will not stand in our way to freedom and independence, which he called for all the Arab nations," Shaath said.

Obama has also demanded answers from Abbas about his reconciliation deal with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, and has not softened its hard-line stance as part of the reconciliation.

Netanyahu said Friday that Abbas would have to choose between Hamas and a peace deal with Israel.

Shaath said reconciliation is an internal Palestinian issue and that the efforts by Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement to form a joint transition government would continue. "We will form a technocrat government which we said will not include either Fatah or Hamas, and will have specific duties, which are preparing for elections and rebuilding Gaza," Shaath said.

Abbas has argued that he, not Hamas, would represent Palestinians in negotiations.

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