UN bid to go on even with peace talks
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he would push for statehood at the United Nations even if he resumes peace negotiations with Israel, Egyptian state media reported yesterday.
Abbas, who was in Cairo for meetings with Egypt's leadership, said he would "immediately" resume talks with Israel if it accepted a Middle East Quartet statement from last month, MENA said.
He said that for the talks to resume, Israel must accept the borders of a future Palestinian state along the lines which existed before the 1967 Middle East war.
The Quartet, made up of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, urged the two sides to return to talks within a month, with the goal of reaching a deal before the end of 2012.
But Abbas, who launched a campaign at the United Nations in September to seek Palestinian membership as a state because talks with Israel were stalled, said the campaign would go ahead even if the talks resumed.
Abbas "affirmed that he would not withdraw his application at the United Nations even if negotiations resumed," MENA reported. "We have submitted the application and we will stick to it until the end."
Quartet envoys are to meet separately in Jerusalem next Wednesday with Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton last week accused Israel of undermining peace efforts by deciding to build a new settlement in annexed east Jerusalem.
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