Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday threatened to cut all ties with Israel of the statehood resolution that was presented to the UN Security Council last week is not approved.
Speaking to reporters in the Algeria, Abbas said the Palestinians were “determined to restore their rights, including the right of return for refugees and the release of all Palestinians from Israeli prison.”
Abbas added: “We won’t surrender to the occupation’s policy of dominance and repression. The Palestinian cause is the key to peace and war in the Middle East and the basis for maintaining security and peace.”
Abbas repeated his threat to dissolve the PA if the latest statehood bid at the Security Council fails. “If we fail, we will halt all dealings with the Israeli government and ask it to assume its responsibilities as an occupation state,” he said.
He also repeated his call for a “peaceful and popular resistance against settlements and the racist separation wall.” He also mocked at Israelis who have branded him a “diplomatic terrorist.”
Abbas said that Palestinian diplomacy has been successful in isolating Israel’s “expansionist policy.”
Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elarabi said that he was considering dispatching a special delegation to Washington to urge the US Administration to refrain from vetoing the Palestinian statehood resolution. He said that Arab League foreign ministers are scheduled to meet on January 15 to discuss ways of mustering worldwide support for the resolution, which calls for setting a timeline for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.
Elarabi said that it was important to remind the US of UN resolution 465, which was passed in 1980 and which considers settlements as illegal. He said that the world has begun realizing that dangers of the continuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict, especially in the aftermath of the last war in the Gaza Strip.