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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Canada, European MP's Reject Unilateral Palestinian Statehood Bid

Canada is rejecting a Palestinian effort to win unilateral recognition at the United Nations as an independent state. "Our government's long-standing position has not changed. The only solution to this conflict is one negotiated between and agreed to by the two parties," said a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. "One of the states must be a Jewish state and recognized as such, while the Palestinian state is to be a nonmilitarized one...unilateral action is ultimately unhelpful."

Additionally, over 100 members of the European Parliament signed a letter urging the European Union "to discourage unilateral Palestinian efforts to attain UN recognition." The letter states that "A unilateral move will not bring reconciliation; it will not bring stability; it will not bring peace...Rather, it will most likely fell the peace process for good."

Concurrently, a delegation of international dignitaries visited Israel this week to assure Israeli leadership that it will fight the Palestinian unilateral bid for recognition. The Friends of Israel Initiative group, including former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, Nobel Peace Prize winner Lord William David Trimble, and Robert Agostinelli, met with PM Netanyahu and President Peres, and other high-ranking Israeli leadership.
U.S. rejects Arab League support for PA statehood bid

In response to the Arab League declaration that it will support the Palestinian Authority bid for statehood in the United Nations, State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement to the Jerusalem Post, "We've been clear in our conviction that unilateral approaches to try to seek statehood via the United Nations will not lead to a comprehensive settlement...That will only come via the hard give and take of negotiations and mutual agreement..."

Such actions, he explained, would be "a violation of all the Palestinian Authority's agreements with us going back to the 1993 Oslo Accords which says expressly that there's no alternative to direct negotiations."


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