UN Palestinian vote is 'last chance' - Mahmoud Abbas

BBC News online - 29 November 2012

President Mahmoud Abbas: "The international community now stands before the last chance to save the two state solution"

The UN General Assembly vote on the status of the Palestinians is the "last chance to save the two-state solution" with Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said.

The assembly is to vote on upgrading the Palestinian status from observer entity to non-member observer state.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said the bid "doesn't advance peace - it pushes it backwards".

The vote has strong EU and Arab support but is opposed by Israel and the US.
The UK may abstain.

• Nations in favour of or likely to support the bid: France, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria
• Nations against or likely to oppose the bid: Israel, US. Canada
• Nations set to abstain: UK (needs assurances that the Palestinians would seek negotiations with Israel "without pre-conditions"), Germany, Australia, Belgium, Colombia

"Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel," Mr Abbas told the assembly. 

"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," he said.

Mr Prosor said "the only way to reach peace is through agreements" between the parties, not at the UN.
              
Opponents of the bid say a Palestinian state should emerge only out of bilateral negotiations, as set out in the 1993 Oslo peace accords under which the Palestinian Authority was established.

The Palestinians are seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967.

France, Spain and Norway are among those urging the General Assembly to raise the Palestinians' UN status. Germany is set to abstain.

While the move is seen as a symbolic milestone in Palestinian ambitions for statehood, a "Yes" vote would also have a practical diplomatic effect, says the BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN.

It would allow the Palestinians to participate in debates at the UN and improve their chances of joining UN agencies and bodies like the ICC.

Last year, Mr Abbas asked the UN Security Council to admit the Palestinians as a member state, but that was opposed by the US.

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