PLO urges UK to recognize Palestinian state after landmark vote

The Palestinian leadership on Tuesday urged the United Kingdom to follow in its parliament’s footsteps by recognizing Palestine as a state and supporting its United Nations Security Council resolution to grant it that status.

The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday welcomed the British Parliament's non-binding 274-12 vote in favor of a Palestinian state, saying  it was a step in the right direction.

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for the PA presidency, said that the vote would "enhance the prospects of peace" in the Middle East.

PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo also called on the British government to endorse the move by voting in favor of a Palestinian state at the Security Council. The United Kingdom is one of 15 nations with membership in the UNSC.

Abed Rabbo said that Britain was "obliged more than any other country to vote in favor of a Palestinian state because of its responsibility for the continued suffering of the Palestinian people since the notorious Balfour Declaration." 

Nabil Sha'ath a senior Fatah official and former PA foreign minister, said that the vote would have a positive impact on the positions of Europe and the efforts to persuade Security Council members to support the Palestinian stance. 

Sha'ath also predicted that the vote would have "legal and political repercussions with regards to boycotting Israel, settlements and Israeli "assaults" on Jerusalem.

He expressed hope that other EU countries would follow suit and recognize the Palestinian state. 

Fatah's top representative in the West Bank, Azzam al-Ahmed, said the vote marked the "beginning of the awakening of the British and international conscience." He said that it was high time that the world endorsed a "moral stance toward the Palestinian people in order to end the historic injustice done to them."