PLO to declare Palestinian state in 2011

RAMALLAH - Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday said that Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will declare the Palestinian state in the middle of 2011.

"The government will continue building and rehabilitating the state's institutions and infrastructure to announce it in the middle of next year," Fayyad told reporters during the inauguration of a main street near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Fayyad also said his government supports resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN Resolution 194 which grants the right to any refugee to return and live in peace with his Israeli neighbors.

Fayyad had announced last year that Palestinians were preparing for a possible unilateral declaration of independence after peace talks with Israel hit a deadlock.

Last month, the US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian negotiations failed to be relaunched due to Israel's approvals to build new Jewish homes in disputed East Jerusalem. The proximity indirect talks would have focused on the borders of the Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, a leftist Palestinian faction urged Fayyad to work on ending the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)'s security commitments towards Israel to allow the independence.

"Ending the security liaison and commitments with Israel is essential to build a state on the lands that Israel occupied in 1967," said Bassam Al-Salhi of the People Party.

The PNA is bounded by many security agreements with Israel based on information exchange, information and field coordination in the West Bank.

Source: China Daily.
Link: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2010-04/03/content_9685019.htm.