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23 Sep, 2011 09:13

'Palestinian statehood will open door for dialogue'

Once Palestine has full UN member negotiation partner status there will be a much more constructive dialogue with Israel on all the controversial issues between the parties, evaluates British Labour MP Tony Lloyd.

Palestinians have been patiently waiting for recognition for decades and the frustration about the lack of progress led them to make the right step and bring the problem directly to UN headquarters in NYC.The Israeli government does not seem to want to negotiate, only increasing the number of settlers on the West Bank, so the situation on the ground is getting more complicated with every day.“Obviously this is an important gesture of the Palestinian people asking for statehood, but it is not only about gesture – it’s about giving a proper status to Palestinians to be a full negotiation partner,” Lloyd says.“Two equal partners can now begin to hammer out really difficult decisions on settlements, on the status of Jerusalem, on return of refugees – very complicated issues but ones that have got to be done in the end,” Lloyd predicts.“If we simply to see an American veto hold [the Palestinian statehood] back – that would be a shame,” believes the MP.British PM David Cameron called for more to be done to help people aspiring for freedom, such as what happened in Libya. Still it seems his revolutionary fervor does not stretch to Palestine, after he said he would not vote in favor of Palestinian statehood.Lloyd pities this position of the British government as, “The concept of different standards in different situations bedevils the international diplomacy.”The British MP considers this to be a common problem and in his opinion the Middle East Quartet has not put enough pressure on Tel Aviv to negotiate. First of all Israel should be forced to ease the economic pressure on Palestinians in general. But the most important issue is “to make sure that free Palestinian people in charge of Palestine live in peace with the neighbor Israel,” he concludes.

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