UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON ENDING OCCUPATION

Al-Quds/Jerusalem, 13 Muharram 1436/6 November 2014 (MINA)  – The Arab draft resolution regarding setting a timeframe for ending the Israeli occupation will be presented for voting at the UN Security Council before the end of the month, the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said.

In an exclusive statement, the Palestinian ambassador told the Anadolu Agency that negotiations are underway with representatives of four European countries and the Security Council’s members on the wording of the expected resolution.

He said Paris is leading the negotiations on behalf of the four European countries, namely France, Britain, Luxembourg and Lithuania, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA), as reporting, Thurday.

“We are currently in negotiations with the four European countries who are members of the Security Council.

They have agreed among themselves that France will represent them in the negotiations with regards to the wording of the draft resolution which we will present to the Security Council for voting before the end of this month.”

Last month, the Palestinian mission distributed a draft resolution November 2016 as the deadline for ending the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The draft resolution highlights the Security Council’s role in protecting the Palestinians, the two-state solution, rejecting Israel’s confiscation of land and recognising of East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

It also demands that Gaza be recognised as an essential part of the State of Palestine with the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian ambassador said: “The representatives of the four European countries are negotiating with us now about making some minor amendments to the formulation of the draft resolution, and we are open to accept some of them that do not affect the spirit and the text of our resolution.”

Mansour refused to disclose the nature of the changes which he described as “secondary and minor”, but stressed the “readiness of the Palestinian side to agree to delay the declaration of the end of the Israeli occupation for a period of one year or two from the date stipulated in the Arab draft resolution, which is November 2016”.

In response to a question about the position of the United States towards the draft resolution and the possibility that it may use its veto right to obstruct its issuance by the Security Council.

Mansour said: “For our part, we will present the resolution for voting before the end of this month, we will then see the positions of the member states, and in the case we do not succeed due to the positions of some state we, in the Palestinian Authority, have alternative plans that we will resort to.”

On Monday, Israeli newspaper Maariv quoted an Israeli politician stating that Obama may decide not to use the US’ veto powers, abandoning Israel at UN Security Council.

“Among them are: going to the United Nations General Assembly to vote on the draft resolution as well as joining the Treaty of Rome, in preparation for bringing the Israeli war criminals to justice to stand trial before the International Criminal Court.”

He stressed that “going to the International Criminal Court means applying justice, and this is one of our rights as Palestinians”.

Mansour said his Israeli counterpart, Ron Prosser, represents an “ISIS of Israel”, referring to the recent statements he made before members of the Security Council at the meeting, which was held last week about the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli representative had presented a series of historical events in which he claimed that Jerusalem was granted to the Jewish people by God, and it will be an eternal capital of Israel, stressing that the construction taking place in Jerusalem will continue there and never stop because it is not a settlement, but the capital of his country.

The Palestinian ambassador added: “With his claims about the historical right of Jews in the Palestinian land around Jerusalem, the Israeli representative represents the substitute for the ISIS organisation in Israel.

We warn of the serious consequences of turning the conflict in Palestine to a conflict between the Jewish and Islamic faiths.” (T/P002/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)