Frustrated Negotiator Saeb Erekat Gives 'Palestine' State Ultimatum

Frustrated Negotiator Saeb Erekat Gives 'Palestine' State Ultimatum. (Forward).

The Palestinians’ chief peace negotiator has laid out in the clearest terms yet plans to establish an independent Palestinian state within three years, even if it means ignoring pleas from the United States not to push ahead.

Expressing deep frustration and a degree of resignation that years of efforts to forge a two-state solution with the Israelis have made next to no progress, Saeb Erekat said there was no option other than to make a unilateral push for statehood.

He said a resolution would be put to the United Nations Security Council next month calling for a November 2017 deadline for the establishment of two states based on the boundaries that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza and seized East Jerusalem - the areas the Palestinians want for an independent state.

“The status quo cannot last,” Erekat told members of the foreign press at his offices in Ramallah on Thursday. “We want to establish a state no later than November 2017. That’s it.”

The Palestinian leadership is well aware that the United States will almost certainly veto any such U.N. resolution, although it will first try to convince the Palestinians not to make such a move so that the veto does not have to be used.

Erekat said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told him at a conference in Cairo this month that the Security Council was “not an option,” but avoided the word veto. The United States is a major source of funding for the Palestinians.

Even if a statehood resolution is thwarted in New York, Erekat reiterated plans to sign up to more than 500 international organizations, conventions, treaties and protocols as Palestine, creating a de facto independence.

That includes the International Criminal Court, which the Palestinians have repeatedly talked about joining in recent years without taking concrete steps. Erekat said the time for prevarication was over.
“We are going to surprise you this time. We will sign the Rome statute,” he said, referring to the treaty that established the International Criminal Court in 1998. Hmmm........Good luck so far the more money they received the lower their GDP, i guess they'll go for broke this time. Read the full story here.