Erekat: PA to press UN to recognize state within '67 borders

The head of the PLO negotiating team, Saeb Erekat, said recently the Palestinian Authority is working to draw the widest possible international support for the idea of approaching the United Nations Security Council to declare a Palestinian state within the 1967 boundaries, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The move can be potentially very embarrassing diplomatically for Israel.

According to Erekat, the Arab League's monitoring committee on the Arab peace initiative, which met in Cairo last week, unanimously approved the idea, which he told the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam was a major and unprecedented achievement.

Erekat said he had discussed the move more than once with American and European representatives. He also said PA President Mahmoud Abbas has presented the idea to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and to Russia, and had received positive responses. He added that Abbas will be going to Latin America this week, and will promote the idea there as well.

Erekat said that if the world recognized the Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 boundaries with East Jerusalem as its capital, Israel's unilateral settlement activity will be considered null and void.

Erekat told the paper that the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana had presented the idea in a lecture he gave in London a few months ago. He also said that the Arabs would approach the Security Council when the time was right, after consulting with European countries and the United States.

The Palestinians today commemorate the declaration of a Palestinian state that took place on November 18, 1988.