The Palestinians will ask the United Nations Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state early next month, a senior Palestinian official announced on Wednesday.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters in the West Bank town of Jericho that the Palestinians plan to submit the proposal to the Security Council by early January, demanding recognition of an independent Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
"We are waiting for Bosnia to take the presidency of the Security Council," said Erekat, expressing a hope that the United States would not veto the proposal, and countries like Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Australia would recognize the Palestinian state.
Since short-lived direct peace talks with Israel collapsed on October 2 – one month after they were launched in Washington – the Palestinians have warned repeatedly that they would move to "other diplomatic options," unless Israel accepted their precondition of a full settlement freeze to allow the direct talks to resume.
"The Israeli government is witnessing an international isolation that it hasn’t witnessed before," said Erekat. "And this is due to the efforts exerted by the Palestinian leadership and by President Mahmoud Abbas."
Meanwhile, Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said on Wednesday that President Abbas is to head to South America to attend the inauguration of Brazil’s new president on January 1.
Shaath told Voice of Palestine that on the sidelines of the ceremony, Abbas would talk with European and Latin American prime ministers and presidents, to garner support for the Security Council move.
"These talks will be an opportunity to earn a wider international support for recognizing the independent Palestinian state established on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Shaath.
He expected that all Latin American countries would finally recognize the Palestinian state. Three Latin American countries, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, already recognized an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 late this year.
395