Abbas to Sign a Confidential Side Letter Not to Accede to the ICC « Kawther Salam
Abbas to Sign a Confidential Side Letter Not to Accede to the ICC
If it is true what Chris McGreal, correspondent of The Guardian in Ramallah, reports, then yesterday Tuesday 27 November 2012 the US pressed Abbas to sign a confidential side letter, which would not be presented to the UN General Assembly, committing the Palestinian Authority not to accede to the ICC and to offer guarantees that the PA will not take advantage of the new status to accuse Israel of war crimes at the international criminal court (ICC) or to seek territorial rulings at the international court of justice. This is a conspiracy to betray the Palestinian national rights being played out on the theatre of international relations by a group of traitors who have renounced the National rights of all Palestinians under the cover of going to ask for statehood at the United Nations and in order to line their pockets with money paid to them by the enemy.
According to what Mr. McGreal reports, the Palestinian leadership warned Europe and the US that failure to support its bid for statehood at the United Nations on Thursday Nov. 29 2012, will further strengthen Hamas after the Gaza fighting by suggesting that violence, rather than diplomacy, is the way to win concessions from Israel.
Senior Palestinian officials believe the vote is a crucial test of whether there is a future for President Mahmoud Abbas‘s diplomatic strategy after his credibility was badly damaged among Palestinians by what they regard as the success of Hamas in the conflict with Israel this month.
Many ordinary Palestinians believe the conflict showed that standing up to Israel delivers results, in contrast to years of concessions under US peace plans, and drawn-out negotiations. European diplomats concede that the fighting has shifted the ground before the Palestinian request for recognition as a “non-member state”. Failure to support Abbas could risk further undermining his increasingly weak position, to Hamas’s advantage, they warn.
France has said it will vote in favor, and Spain is shifting in that direction. But the US and Britain are attempting to weaken the impact of a UN vote in support of statehood by putting considerable pressure on the Palestinian leadership to offer guarantees that it will not take advantage of the new status to accuse Israel of war crimes at the international criminal court (ICC) or seek territorial rulings at the international court of justice.
Palestinian officials said Britain and the US had pressed Abbas to sign a confidential side letter, which would not be presented to the UN general assembly, committing the Palestinian Authority not to accede to the ICC. See full report
The below shows how weak the plotting by the United States and Israel is compared to world opinion at this time. Pray for Palestine - at a time like this is when the Israelis and their Zionist Operatives in America will try to pull some low vile murderous stunt.
Israel pulls back from threat to topple Palestinian leadership over UN vote | World news | guardian.co.uk
Israel pulls back from threat to topple Palestinian leadership over UN vote
Israeli officials change tack after it becomes clear that request for statehood at UN is likely to gather significant support
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, (R) during a meeting with the US deputy secretary of state, William Burns, in New York. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/REUTERS
After weeks of shrill warnings over Thursday's United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood, Israel has backed away from threats to cancel the Oslo peace accords and topple the Palestinian leadership.
Israeli officials are now playing down any immediate sanctions against the Palestinians after it became clear that the request for statehood is likely to gather significant support, which has strengthened since the Israeli assault on Gaza. Several European countries, including France, Switzerland and Spain, will back the Palestinian move, in part out of concern that failing to do so will weaken the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to the advantage of Hamas.
The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, previously drew up proposals saying that if the UN vote went ahead "then Israel must exact a heavy price from Abu Mazen (Abbas), including the possibility of toppling his regime and dismantling the Palestinian Authority". Israeli officials warned that funding to the PA could be cut, peace accords cancelled in part or in whole, and unrestricted construction of Jewish settlements authorised.
But the threats have not deterred the Palestinians nor a significant number of European countries from supporting their bid for "observer state", which is on a par with the Vatican's position at the UN.
Officials in Jerusalem are now instead seeking to disparage the vote as of no great significance in itself.
"We won't cancel any of our agreements," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told reporters. "When we choose to respond, we will carefully weigh our options. We will do everything we can that's within Israeli law and within the framework of the agreements we signed with the Palestinians."
The Israeli move also came under US pressure. Haaretz reported that the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, warned the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, during talks in Jerusalem last week not to destabilise the Palestinian Authority.
Israel says the Palestinian leadership will instead be judged on how it uses the new non-member state status at the UN, particularly over asking the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes.
Abbas is under considerable pressure from Israel, the US and Britain in particular to renounce the option for the Palestinian Authority to accede to the ICC.
Britain said it would abstain in the UN vote unless it received assurances that the Palestinians would not seek to extend the jurisdiction of the ICC over the occupied territories, and unless the Palestinians committed to an immediate and unconditional return to the negotiating table with Israel.
The British foreign secretary, William Hague, in a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday, said: "Up until the time of the vote itself, we will remain open to voting in favour of the resolution if we see public assurances by the Palestinians on these points. However, in the absence of these assurances, the United Kingdom would abstain on the vote."
The draft resolution released by the Palestinians on Wednesday, however, showed that no such concessions had been made.
The Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters that the PA would neither immediately sign up for the ICC nor renounce its right to do so.
"I don't believe that we are going to be rushing the second day to join everything related to the United Nations, including the ICC," he said.
But Mansour said that if Israel continued to violate international law, in particular by continuing Jewish settlement construction in the occupied territories, then the Palestinians would have to consider "what should we do next to bring Israel into compliance?"
"We're not in the business of trying to prolong this conflict and settle scores," he said. "But we are not fools nor dummies. If they don't move in that direction ... then all of us should be considering all other possible options in order to bring them into compliance."
The Israeli move to downplay the vote appears to be an attempt to diminish embarrassment at the failure of its efforts to persuade most European countries to abstain in the hopes of denying the Palestinians the legitimacy garnered from the support of democratic countries.
The motion is virtually assured of passing because a majority of countries in the general assembly have indicated they will back the statehood measure.
A veteran Palestinian peace negotiator, Hanan Ashrawi, called intense pressure from the US and other countries to get Abbas to drop the UN vote "pathetic" and said it harmed Washington's standing in the Arab world.
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