UN vote on Palestine boosts two-state solution: Abbas

PPalestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said a UN vote on an independent Palestine boosts the principle of the two-state solution with Israel. The official Palestinian news agency today quoted Abbas as saying, going to the U.N. doesn't contradict with the core of the peace process and it is not a unilateral measure that aims at isolating Israel. Abbas told members of his Fatah party during a factional meeting that the Palestinian decision to ask the U.N. General Assembly to vote on the establishment of a state next month came as a result of the Israeli refusal of all attempts to start serious negotiations to end the occupation.

U.S-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were halted in 2010 over differences on the resumption of settlement building in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. Israel has recently approved new housing projects in Jewish settlements built on occupied lands in East Jerusalem, which has sparked mass criticism from the Palestinians.