A UN Security Council subcommittee is expected to report Friday that the PA does not have the nine votes it needs to assure the council’s approval of its request for full UN membership.
According to the subcommittee, at least seven of the body’s 15 members won’t vote in support of the measure. Among them are the US, which will oppose it, and the United Kingdom and France, which will abstain.
The PA’s inability to achieve this support weakens its president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Another official told the Post that Abbas was facing growing demands from Palestinians to dissolve the PA and “throw the keys back to Israel” so it would become responsible for running the Palestinians’ affairs.
The official said Abbas was planning to consult with a number of Arab leaders before making any decision that could have serious implications for the whole region. Other officials have been talking about the need to end the Fatah-Hamas dispute and form a unity government in light of the statehood plan’s failure.
Erekat reiterated the PA’s refusal to resume direct peace negotiations with Israel unless the government halted all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and accepted the 1967 “borders” as the basis for a two-state solution.
Erekat also called upon the Quartet members – the US, EU, UN and Russia – to put pressure on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners, especially those who were imprisoned before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
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