Palestinian FM urges int'l reaction to Netanyahu's remarks over Palestinian autonomy

Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Thursday the international community to react to the statement of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rejection to the "establishment of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state."

The Ministry said in an emailed press statement that the statements of Netanyahu in Australia Wednesday come hand in hand with the position of the ruling extreme right wing in Israel.

Netanyahu, who was on an official visit to Australia, told journalists that he would only accept a Palestinian autonomous state in which Israel has the main security control over all Palestinian territories.

The ministry highlighted that Netanyahu's position is "flagrant defiance to the will of the international community calling for a negotiated resolution of the conflict on the basis of the two states solution, an official Israeli position to undermine peace chances and international legitimacy resolutions."

The Ministry urged all states to declare a clear position regarding the Israeli attempts that aim to dissolve the two state solution.

It also called on the U.S. Administration "to end its silence towards those provocative Israeli positions and statements."

Netanyahu said in a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney "I don't want to incorporate two million Palestinians as citizens of Israel nor do I want them as subject of Israel, so I want them to have all the freedoms to govern themselves, but not of the powers to threaten us, and that's the essence of what we are suggesting."

He added that only when the Palestinians "recognize a Jewish state, once they recognize the permanence of Israel and the right of Israel to be there as the national state of the Jewish people, in our ancestral homeland... everything else will fall in place."

Palestinian President's Advisor for diplomatic affairs Majdi Khalidi said that a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital is anchored in international law.

Khalidi said in an interview with the official Palestinian radio station (Voice of Palestine) that "nobody can take this achievement from Palestine," adding that "Israel is attempting to take over the lands of the Palestinian state and suggest difference solutions."

The peace talks between Israel and Palestine have been stalled since April 2014. The U.S.-sponsored talks that lasted for nine months achieved no tangible results. Endit