Khaled Meshaal backs Palestinian bid for status upgrade at UN

Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal has expressed support for acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in his upcoming bid for the status of non-member observer state for Palestine at the United Nations.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said in a statement on Monday that Meshaal “held a telephone conversation” with Mahmoud Abbas “in which he affirmed that Hamas welcomes the step of going to the United Nations for state observer status.”

Meshaal stressed that the approach to the United Nations “must be in the context of a vision and national strategy to maintain the national constants and rights and based on elements of power in the hands of our Palestinian people, the first of which is the resistance,” the statement added.

Abbas is due to ask the UN General Assembly in New York for an observer status for Palestine on November 29.

Izzt al-Rashq, a member of Hamas political bureau, also “welcomed” the UN bid but warned it should not “sacrifice or compromise any inch of Palestinian land from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river.”

Palestine sought full UN membership at the UN Security Council just over a year ago. However, the United States blocked the decision by using its veto power.

The bid for Palestine’s enhanced non-member state status needs a majority vote from the 193-member General Assembly to win, which critics expect to be tendered and to pass.

If the bid succeeds, it will grant Palestinians access to UN agencies and the International Criminal Court, where they can file official complaints against the Israeli regime.