Palestinian president presses for UN vote on Israeli withdrawal
Palestinian president presses for UN vote on Israeli withdrawal Mahmoud Abbas pushes for Wednesday vote as Netanyahu files to Rome to meet US secretary of state John Kerry Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem The Guardian , Monday 15 December 2014 12.01 GMT Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (right) with Saeb Erekat at an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo in November. Photograph: Mohamed Adel/EPA The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is pushing for a vote in the United Nations security council – as early as Wednesday – on a resolution calling for a deadline to end the 47-year-long Israeli occupation. The move, disclosed late on Sunday night by the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat , comes as Israel’s prime minister vowed to reject any attempt to set a deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders or a timeline for ending the occupation. Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments came as he flew to Rome for a meeting w