US rejects Arab League support for PA statehood bid

            An Arab League decision to ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines would not serve the peace process, the US said on Thursday. “We’ve been clear in our conviction that unilateral approaches to try to seek statehood via the United Nations will not lead to a comprehensive settlement,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told The Jerusalem Post in a statement. “That will only come via the hard give and take of negotiations and mutual agreement, and we are committed to working with the parties to pursue it that way.” His statement came after the publication of a communiqué by the Arab League saying that it had decided to ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and to upgrade its status to that of a full member of the international organization. The Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Doha, Qatar, also decided to entrust the Arab group at the UN to prepare for this move, by taking all the necessary legal measures and following up all efforts and contacts related to this issue, the communiqué said. The draft statement did not provide a timeline, but Palestinian officials have said they want application to be made in time for the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting in September. A Palestinian delegate said the Arab League had appointed a committee to set dates. The Palestinian Authority welcomed the Arab League’s decision after a meeting in Ramallah attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and a number of senior PA officials. An official in Ramallah said that Abbas was planning to visit a number of European Union countries in the coming days to try to persuade them to support the statehood bid at the UN. Although 115 countries have already recognized a Palestinian state, the United States, Canada and most of the European Union countries have not. Such recognition by Western countries is deemed critical to the success of the Palestinian statehood bid. Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, described the Arab League decision as a “diplomatic offensive” that would form the basis for Palestinian and Arab moves. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Arab ministers had decided to send letters to countries that still hadn’t recognized the Palestinian state, asking them to do so ahead of the planned UN vote in September. He expressed hope that the US would not veto the statehood bid in the Security Council, noting that the Arab ministers had unanimously backed the PA plan.(23,44)