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    September 25, 2011

Palestinian President Receives Hero's Welcome in West Bank

   VOA News
   Palestinians dance and sing prior to the arrival of Palestinian
   President Mahmoud Abbas at the government compound, in the West Bank
   city of Ramallah, September 25, 2011.
   Photo: AP
   Palestinians dance and sing prior to the arrival of Palestinian
   President Mahmoud Abbas at the government compound, in the West Bank
   city of Ramallah, September 25, 2011.

   Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told a crowd of thousands of
   Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah that a "Palestinian
   Spring" has started following his historic U.N. bid submission for
   recognition of a Palestinian state.

   Abbas received a hero's welcome Sunday as he returned to the West Bank
   from New York. There, he defied U.S. and Israeli appeals to drop his
   bid, and instead asked the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to
   officially recognize a state of Palestine.

   The Middle East Quartet, which is made up of the U.S., U.N., EU and
   Russia, has called on Israelis and Palestinians to resume pace talks
   within a month and reach an agreement by next year.

   Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Sunday he favors the
   Quartet plan and called on Palestinians not to look for "excuses" to
   stay away from the negotiating table.

   The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Malki, said Saturday the new
   initiative calling for the resumption of peace talks with Israel is
   insufficient because it does not include a call for an Israeli
   settlement construction freeze.

   He also said the Quartet's initiative is incomplete because it does not
   call for an Israeli withdrawal to the borders that were in place before
   Israel took control of Palestinian territories in 1967.

   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called to begin peace talks
   immediately and reaffirmed Israel's stance that peace cannot come
   through U.N. resolutions.

   Palestinians celebrated Saturday while Israelis reacted with a mix of
   hope and concern over Abbas' request for U.N. statehood recognition.

   U.S. President Barack Obama said recently his government would use its
   veto power in the U.N. Security Council to block any resolution
   recognizing the Palestinians. In his U.N. address, Obama said that the
   only solution was direct talks between the two sides. The U.N. Security
   Council is set to discuss the Palestinians' statehood application on
   Monday.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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References

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