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Photo: AFP
Saeb Erekat
Photo: AFP

Egypt will back Palestinian resolution at UN

Cairo to support draft on Israeli withdrawal from West Bank at Security Council, Egyptian foreign minister tells Saeb Erekat.

Egypt said on Saturday it supports a draft resolution submitted by the Palestinians to the UN Security Council setting out terms for a final peace deal with Israel.

 

 

The Palestinians on Wednesday presented the resolution setting a 12-month deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final settlement and the end of 2017 for completion of an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

 

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri held talks in Cairo on the resolution during which Shoukri offered Egypt's support for the move, a foreign ministry statement said.

 

 

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinians. (Photo: Kfir Sion)
Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinians. (Photo: Kfir Sion)

 

It said that during their talks, Shoukri stressed Egypt's support for "the choice of the Palestinian people and its leadership".

 

He offered Cairo's "full backing for the legal rights of the Palestinians in establishing an independent state along the borders of June 4, 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital", the statement said.

 

The draft resolution calls for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the shared capital.

 

Washington says it will not back the resolution, objecting in particular to the deadline for an Israeli withdrawal.

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned EU ambassadors against passing a UN Security Council resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before Israel's March 17 elections, as such a move could strengthen hardliners on both sides, Foreign Policy reported on Friday, citing European diplomats.

 

"Kerry has been very, very clear that for the United States it was not an option to discuss whatever text before the end of the Israeli election," a European diplomat told Foreign Policy.

 

Cairo brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-based militant groups led by Hamas after a 50-day war erupted in early July.

 

Ynetnews contributed to this report.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.20.14, 23:52
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