PLO Council in Show of Support for Abbas at U.N.
Members of the Palestinian parliament in exile met in Ramallah on Monday to show support for the campaign to seek full membership in the United Nations, a senior official said.
Some 50 members of the Palestinian National Council, which has 669 seats and represents Palestinians worldwide, met at al-Amari refugee camp.
The meeting of the body, which is part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), came as president Mahmud Abbas arrived in New York, where he intends to submit a request for full U.N. membership on Friday.
The informal meeting was also attended by another 50 Palestinian politicians who showed up to express their support for the diplomatic move.
"The meeting is to show the people that the Palestinian National Council is backing the U.N. move, that they are with Abbas and support this move at the United Nations," council member Hassan Khreishe told Agence France Presse.
"It is the first time that all Palestinians agree on one aim, and the meeting today is to show we are all in favor of going to the U.N. to seek (membership for) a Palestinian state," said Khreishe, who is also deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament.
"I am in favor of going to the U.N. because there is nothing to lose."
The Palestinians say they are heading to the U.N. following the collapse of peace talks, but world powers are divided over the move, with Israel and Washington firmly against it and many in Europe concerned about the potential diplomatic crisis it could spark.
Abbas will submit the membership bid in his capacity as head of the PLO after he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on September 23.
He will request full membership for a Palestinian state along lines which existed before the 1967 Six Day War in a move which Washington has pledged to veto in the U.N. Security Council.
Source: Agence France Presse
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