Egyptian Foreign Minister supports recognition of Palestinian state

Wafa– Egyptian Foreign Minster Nabil al-Arabi Thursday expressed support for Palestinian efforts to seek international recognition in September of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

The Palestinian diplomatic move, he said, “is a justified diplomatic act in light of Israel’s obstinacy and its refusal to resume negotiations.”

Speaking to reports in Cairo, Arabi said that any action to gain recognition of a Palestinian state was not intended to delegitimize Israel. Rather, he said, the exact opposite will happen because UN partition resolution number 181 of 1947 partitioned Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.

Arabi said that recognizing Palestinian state does not require it to be based on clear borders, explaining that when Israel was established in 1948 it did not have clear borders, yet many countries recognized it.

He stressed that the borders of Palestinian state are the borders of June 4, 1967 and the world recognizes this political reality, including the United Sates as came in President Barack Obama’s speech on May19.

Arabi said that if negotiations resume without specific timeline, then negotiations can drag on for two more decades without achieving any results.

He said the idea of an international conference to re-start negotiations should have a clear agenda and a timeline, two matters Israel had refused.