Palestinian officials on Tuesday attempted to downplay a statement by the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council that the PLO was suspending its recognition of Israel until Israel agrees to acknowledge an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with east Jerusalem as its capital.
In its announcement Monday, the Central Council also said the PLO was suspending all security and economic ties with Israel, as outlined in the 1994 Paris Economic Protocol.
The decision essentially means that the PLO wants to cease compliance with the 1993 Oslo Accords on which the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is founded.
However, officials in Palestinian Authority stressed Tuesday that the announcement was declarative and nonbinding, and said it was doubtful that PA President Mahmoud Abbas would endorse it. Abbas must ratify the council's resolution for it to come into force.
Ahead of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Abbas threatened to use his speech there to declare a "Palestinian state under occupation," effectively spelling the Palestinian Authority's withdrawal from the Oslo Accords.
He decided to postpone the declaration a day before his Sept. 27 speech.
