UNSC to discuss Palestine resolution soon: Envoy

PressTV

A draft resolution on the creation of the state of Palestine will be presented to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over the next few days, a Palestinian official says. Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour said Monday that the text, which is being shepherded by France, is also expected to lay out a timeframe for negotiations on a final peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The French are moving more and more, trying to bring all the European colleagues together, and I think that eventually they will succeed,” Mansour said.

The draft resolution, approved by the Arab League in September, calls for ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories by November 2016. Arab League foreign ministers said in a statement that they agreed on a plan which includes submitting an “Arab proposal to the United Nations Security Council to end the [Israeli] occupation” of the Palestinian territories.

The 22-member bloc reiterated “categorical rejection of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state,” while backing Palestine’s plan to seek membership in UN agencies and international courts.

In the past few months, the Palestinian national unity government has been pushing for a UN resolution that determines the borders of the future Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines. Israel has expressed outcries over the motion. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says there will be no negotiations over land with Israel as Palestinians won’t give up even an inch of their land.

In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem Al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip. However, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem Al-Quds and the Gaza Strip and are demanding Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of East Jerusalem Al-Quds.