By Daoud Kuttab

A leading Palestinian official has said that the end of March, rather than the end of April, could be the date that the Palestinian leadership moves to join United Nations agencies. “Our agreement was clear,” Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview. “In return for Israel releasing all 104 [Palestinian] prisoners, we will refrain from joining any further UN agencies. If they renege on this issue, we are free to join UN agencies. This has nothing to do with the end-of-April deadline for the face-to-face talks.” Zaki called the current situation “very dangerous” and said the Central Committee is holding an “open-ended emergency session.”

Zaki, a former ambassador of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to Beirut, asserted in the interview that the Palestinians continue to yearn for peace, but not at any cost. “We have absolutely no regrets for taking the path of peace, but if this process is a failure and a waste of time, we will not hesitate to say so.”

Speaking on the upcoming Arab summit, scheduled March 25 in Kuwait, the current commissioner for Arab affairs in Fatah said that he hoped Arab leaders would support Palestine and refrain from taking contradictory positions. “We want them to truly support the Palestinian negotiating position and to ensure that the United States remains neutral in the negotiations. What we don’t want is for anyone to volunteer a position without knowing the background to it.”

Zaki said that the issue of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state has been rejected by Palestinians as well as Arab foreign ministers at a meeting in Cairo in the preceding days. More of the interview follows. Continue Reading »