Palestine's proposal to be presented at 'right time' in UN

United Nations, Dec 30 (IANS/EFE) The Palestinian representation at the UN has included several amendments to a draft resolution announced two weeks ago and the text will be presented in the Security Council "at the right time", official sources said.

The Palestinians, supported by the Arab group at the UN, have for months been demanding that the UN Security Council adopt a resolution to set a deadline for the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territories.

The US, Israel's main ally, had already anticipated Monday's move by the Palestinians and on the terms that were previously announced, will veto it, so it has little prospect of being approved.

The Palestinians continue to insist on the need to vote on the text in the Security Council and are confident of it being achieved before the end of the year, a possibility that appears to be increasingly more difficult.

The issue was discussed at a two-hour meeting held Monday in the UN headquarters with Arab representatives, where they discussed the amendments recommended by the Palestinians, Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar told journalists.

The diplomat, whose country holds a non-permanent seat in the Council, has not specified in which direction the amendments would be made, but said that they refer to the status of Jerusalem, the prisoners and water rights.

Among the applied changes, the amended proposal establishes that the negotiations should lead to a fair solution on the status of Jerusalem as the capital of two states, according to the text leaked by Arab sources.

The version released two weeks ago said that Jerusalem should be the "shared capital" between Palestinians and Israelis.

The latest amendments also require the issue of the prisoners to be solved in a fair manner, while earlier only the distribution of water was mentioned.

Kawar said that representatives of the Arab group would have private consultations to define "what is the best time to vote" on the proposal.

The draft of the proposal, which was announced Dec 17 requires Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories before the end of 2017, something that remains in the text as amended in the last hours.

The draft proposes that within the period of one year from the approval of the proposal, there should be a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that is "fair, lasting and complete".

The US, which has the power to veto in the council, has already said that it was not in accordance with the initiative, according to the text that was announced two weeks ago.

--IANS/EFE

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