Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Thursday slammed the Palestinian Authority’s statehood bid in the UN, calling it an “act of aggression.”
“The submission of the draft resolution to the UN Security Council is another act of aggression on their part,” Xinhua quoted Lieberman as saying in a statement a day after the Palestinians submitted their proposal.
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is adopting measures whose sole aim is to attack Israel, with no benefit for the Palestinians,” the minister said, adding that “on the contrary, they can only further exacerbate the conflict and worsen the situation, and will not advance any solution”.
The Palestinian Authority, a non-member observer state of the UN since 2012, submitted its draft resolution Wednesday to the UN Security Council (UNSC).
It urges the UNSC members to hold a one-year deadline on reaching a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians and have Israel withdraw from territories occupied following the 1967 Mideast War in the West Bank and east Jerusalem until the end of 2017.
The Palestinian move was planned in advance, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry met Monday in Rome to coordinate the two countries’ stance on the upcoming proposal.
Although the US would veto such moves viewed unfavourable by Israel, it announced in a statement Tuesday it would support moves for peace as long as these do not include unilateral moves.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had contacted international treaties and agencies in order to promote unilateral moves following the collapse of the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in April.
Both Israel and the US fear the Palestinian Authority would approach the International Criminal Court in Hague and prosecute Israeli officials for the occupation of the territories in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since 1967.
Israel recently suffered a series of diplomatic setbacks in relations between Israel and European countries.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament based in Strasbourg passed a motion supporting “in principle” recognition of Palestinian statehood, as part of a two-state solution with Israel, on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both.
Similar resolutions have been adopted by other European countries, including Britain, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and France in symbolic votes.
–IANS