Abbas says Palestinians determined to get UN recognition
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians are determined to seek recognition of a Palestinian state from the United Nations in September, a Ramallah-based newspaper reported Tuesday.
"The issue of going to the UN is decisive and it doesn't endure any play or maneuvering," Abbas said during a meeting of the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah movement here on Monday night, according to the report.
However, Abbas stressed that the negotiations with Israel remain the preferable choice for the Palestinians and that the Palestinians will continue efforts to resume the talks.
The negotiations stopped in September 2010 four weeks after the United States brokered them. The Palestinians walked out of the talks, protesting the resumption of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank. Abbas decided to move to the UN as a response to the settlement building.
On the internal level, meanwhile, Abbas said he is serious to implement a reconciliation agreement that Egypt brokered between Fatah and the Islamic Hamas movements last week.
"The priority is now to form a government of independents and then the formation of committees to implement the agreement," Abbas said.
The agreement would restore political unity to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The split widened when Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over Gaza by force in June 2007.
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