RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official has said that the United Nation should take its important role in evading the unilateral Israeli steps in the Palestinian terrains, mainly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In a meeting with Barbara A. Leaf, the visiting US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, on Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Hussein al-Sheikh, the Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, reportedly made the comments.
Al-Sheikh stated to Leaf that "stopping the Israeli actions embodied in building settlements, incursions, and daily killings, and protecting the historical position in Jerusalem will produce a political horizon leading to the end of the Israeli occupation."
According to a US government statement, Leaf is currently in Israel and the West Bank after a three-day trip to Tunisia that ended on August 31. She is there to talk about US cooperation with Israel and the Palestinian Authority during her next three-day trip in the area, which will end on September 3.
Palestine's full-state admission to the UN will be a top priority during Leaf's visit, the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki stated in a press statement on Thursday.
Al-Maliki said in the statement that the US won't let Palestine join the UN as a full member state.
The UN General Assembly gave Palestine non-member observer status in 2012, enabling the Palestinian Authority to take part in various General Assembly voting procedures and join select UN organisations. Full UN membership would grant the Palestinians legal recognition of the independent state they aim to build with East Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 1967 borders.
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