Palestinian President MahmoudAbbas has welcomed Frances ultimatum to Tel Aviv that Paris will recognize Palestine as an independent state should a new push to revive Israel-Palestinian talks fail.
Abbas made the commentson Saturday in an address to the opening ceremony of the 26th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Unionin the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa.
He highlighted the need to hold an international conference devoted to the issue and activate the United Nations Security Councils role vis-a-vis the Palestinian cause.
We welcome the French initiative and affirm that the status quo cannot continue. Our people will continue to use political and legal methods, through a peaceful and popular resistance, to achieve our national rights, Abbas said.
Abbas remarks came one day after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris is planning to hold an international conference in the coming weeks to bring together the Israeli and Palestinian sides as well as the US and some European and Arab states.
Fabius further emphasized that France will recognize a Palestinian state if efforts to find a solution to the conflict failed.
The Israeli regime has, however, rejected the French intiviative.
Efforts to bring an end to theIsraeli-Palestinian conflictcollapsed in April 2014 and since then there have been no serious attempts to resume negotiations between the two sides.
The Palestinian president further called for an end to the Israeli occupation, illegal settlement activities and seizure of Palestinian natural resources.
He went on to say that Palestinians seek a sovereign state with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital, stressing, We wont return to negotiations just for the sake of negotiating.
We wont accept interim or temporary solutions, Abbas said, adding, We will stay here on our land and in our homeland, where we have developed our historical and cultural identity and made humanitarian contributions for thousands of years.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"]
Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat AFP[/caption]In a relevant development on Saturday, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary GeneralSaeb Erekat also welcomed the French initiative regardingthe issue of Palestine.
We believe that the war against terror must succeed, must prevail, but we cannot ensure this without a balance, that is to end the Israeli occupation and establish a Palestinian state in the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, Erekat said.
The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds and the Gaza Strip, with East al-Quds as the capital. They are also demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian lands occupied in a 1967 war.
The Tel Aviv regime, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestines status at the UN from non-member observer entity to non-member observer state despite strong opposition from the Israeli regime and the US.
Palestines flag was hoisted for the first time at the United Nations headquarters in New York in last September.
By Press TV
