RAMALLAH, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) — A United Nations vote on an independent Palestine boosts the principle of the two-state solution with Israel, Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in remarks published Saturday.
“Going to the U.N. doesn’t contradict with the core of the peace process; it is not a unilateral measure that aims at isolating Israel,” the official Palestinian news agency quoted Abbas as saying.
The Palestinian decision to ask the U.N. General Assembly to vote on the establishment of a state next month “came as a result of the Israeli refusal of all attempts to start real, serious negotiations to end the occupation,” Abbas told members of his Fatah party during a factional meeting.
U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were halted in 2010 over differences on the resumption of settlement building in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian peace negotiator, said that the international support is needed to limit construction plans by the Israeli government.
Israel has recently approved new housing projects in Jewish settlements built on occupied lands in East Jerusalem, which has sparked mass criticism from the Palestinians.
