Full Palestinian UN membership

Arab League approves plans:

EGYPT: The Arab League (AL) and three international organizations approved Saturday plans for supporting the Palestinian full membership in the United Nations. The AL Secretary General Nabil el-Arabi, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr, the African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping, and Assistant General Secretary of the Islamic Cooperation Organization for Palestinian affairs Samir Baker, held a meeting to coordinate diplomatic efforts and support the plans for the Palestinian moves towards getting a full UN membership.

“The goal of this meeting is to organize all the efforts concerning the Palestinian cause before they go to the United Nations’ new round of General Assembly,” el-Arabi said at a joint press conference after the meeting.

“I have met several European countries’ representatives in my recent visits to Paris and all the indications were positive and good,” he added.

El-Arabi said the public opinion would not care about the Israeli threats for the Palestinians once the Palestinian membership is approved by the UN.

When answering a question about the Turkish decision to expel the Israeli ambassador, he said that “what Israel has committed towards the Turkish flotilla is regarded as a crime against international laws.”

“I read the UN report (on the incident), but I think it has a legal mistake, because it tackled this issue from the prospective of sea laws, not from the humanitarian prospective ... so this is a political report.”

On May 31, 2010, Israeli navy commandos launched an onslaught against the six-ship aid convoy in the Mediterranean sea water en route to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing eight Turkish nationals and a Turkish-American teenager and wounding more than 40 others on board the vessel Mavi Marmara.

Cairo, Sunday, Xinhua