Arab League to Bid for Palestinian Statehood

The Arab League (AL) has pledged to call on the United Nations to accept Palestine’s full membership in the world body.

AL Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said the Arab Peace Initiative (API) committee would "move to present a request for full membership of a Palestinian state in the [UN] General Assembly and the [UN] Security Council" in September.

He made the remark on Thursday after an AL meeting in Qatar, AFP reported.

The AL adopted the API back in 2002 with the aim of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, which has been continuously exacerbated by Tel Aviv’s insistence to go against the international community.

The Thursday announcement heartened the Palestinians, who have repeatedly said they will ask the UN in September to recognize a Palestinian state.

They say the Palestinian state’s demarcations have to be based on the borders of 1967 before Tel Aviv captured the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) — the promised capital of any potential Palestinian state.

Israel carried out a supposed withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. However, it has been keeping the territory under recurrent deadly attacks and an all-out siege, which it brought into force in mid-June 2007.

The Palestinian Authority has long been seeking official UN recognition for Palestine as an independent state, but the plan has been opposed by the United States, Israel and some of their Western allies and Israel.

(Press TV)

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