Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Sallam Fayyed has said that a recognition of Palestinian statehood in September will not change facts on the ground in terms of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip.Sallem Fayyed claimed in an interview with Associated Press on Tuesday that Palestinian recognition in the UN in September would be a symbolic victory only from which Palestinians could use to pressure Israel in the international community.
Fayyed spoke agaisnt raising the expectations of Palestinians that a succesful bid to declare statehood would result an end in the occupation or a turnaround in their lives. ‘It is not going to be a dramatic result and I do not believe it will be right to continue, for there to be preoccupation about something dramatic happening,’ he said.
Senior PA aide Nabil Shaath has said on Tuesday that 116 UN countries have already granted recognition and that expects another two dozen to do so in the near future.
Fayyed also rejected the possibilty of staying on in the interim unity government if not as Prime Minister as a means of using his international ties to continue attracting international aid. ‘I am not the ATM for the Palestinian Authority. I never was,’ he said.
Fayyed is the subject of a bitter row between rival parties Fatah and Hamas. Hamas has rejected Fayyed as a candidate for the interim unity government PM as proposed by Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas.
