Abbas signs on joining int'l treaties, agencies after failure in UN bid

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed Wednesday on joining 20 treaties and agencies, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) after UN Security Council rejected a draft resolution to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Abbas said after he signed on joining the treaties and agencies as he chaired a meeting for the executive committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah.

"What we have signed on is our right that aims at establishing a Palestinian state on the borders of the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital in accordance to the international law and resolutions," said Abbas.

Abbas felt regret that the Palestinians failed to gain the minimum nine votes of the UN Security Council, adding "We were expecting to gain the nine votes but one state withdrew in the last moment. Here we reiterate that the conflict in this region can only be resolved by ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

He stressed that he is determined to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court, adding "Yes, we will complain against those who attack our people and our lands every day. We went to complain to the Security Council, but no one listened to us, therefore we will go to the international court and complain."

"The treaties and agencies the Palestinians had signed on will be valid within 30 days, and some others will be valid within 90 days automatically," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

"The Palestinian leadership has overwhelmingly signed on joining 20 treaties and agencies, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," Wasel Abu Yousef, a member in PLO executive committee, told reporters

Abu Yousef, who attended the meeting in Ramallah, said "This is a legitimate right the Palestinian leadership has decided to legally take and was overwhelmingly approved," adding that the signing is the start of the Palestinian political battle.

Abbas said on Wednesday that the Palestinian failure in the UN Security Council to pass the draft resolution on ending the Israeli occupation "is not the end."

According to the state-run news agency "Wafa" report, the draft resolution failed to gain the support of nine state members in the Security Council, and only got eight which are China, Jordan, France, Russia, Argentina, Chad, Chili and Luxemburg.

"The disapproval of our resolution to end the Israeli occupation is not the end," Abbas said as he lit a torch to mark 50 years for establishing the Fatah movement.

Abbas also said that the Palestinian struggle "won't end until we get to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of our Palestinian state which will remain so." He added that "Without Jerusalem, the West Bank or Gaza, there will be no Palestinian state at all."

Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement, which still rules the Gaza Strip, said in an emailed press statement that the signing on joining the treaties and agencies "is a positive step forward, but needs to be put in the frame of a national agreement and the accordance of the Palestinian political powers."

"Stopping all kind of the so-called peace negotiations with the occupation, stopping all kinds of security cooperation with Israel, lifting the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and starting the process of reconstruction in Gaza should be the coming priorities of the Palestinians," said Hamas statement.

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