RAMALLAH
A source with the Palestinian Authority (PA) has said that the latter will submit the draft resolution for ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
"In a meeting on Sunday night, the [Palestinian] leadership decided to submit the draft resolution on Wednesday," a source within the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas told The Anadolu Agency.
State-run Palestinian news agency WAFA said Sunday that the draft resolution will be submitted after an "upcoming meeting between Arab foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European ministers."
During the meeting, the PA also stressed the importance of expediting the formation of an international committee to investigate the death of senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein, according to WAFA.
Moreover, it called for "expanding all forms of peaceful popular resistance against [Israeli] occupation to combat the settlement expansion and defend national rights."
Abu Ein died Wednesday when Israeli troops dispersed a demonstration against the expansion of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and Israel's separation wall.
The Palestinian draft resolution will seek to apply the "two-state solution," providing the Palestinians with an independent state within pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to recent statements by Abbas.
Washington, which hopes to maintain its Arab allies in its coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, hopes to avoid using its veto to torpedo the Palestinian draft resolution.
Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators collapsed in April of this year over Israel's refusal to release a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so.
The talks aimed to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the roots of which date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous "Balfour Declaration," called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
Israel not to accept 'unilateral' Palestinian state bid: PM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that his country would not accept "attempts to dictate unilateral moves" as Palestinians are expected to submit a draft resolution calling for establishing their independent state to the UN Security Council later this week.
"There are attempts to dictate terms that would harm Israel's security and won't bring about peace," Netanyahu said before boarding a plane to Rome for a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
"We will fend off any such attempt that would only bring terrorism into the heart of the state. Even if there will be [attempts to] dictate, we will stand firm," he added.
Earlier in the day, a source with the Palestinian Authority (PA) The Anadolu Agency that the latter will submit the draft resolution for ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
www.aa.com.tr/en
