International Donors Say Palestinian Authority Has Gone Beyond “Threshold of State”

Salam Fayyad (abc.net.au)

Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the National Palestinian Authority, hailed as a “birth certificate” of the Palestinian state the recognition by donor countries summoned in Brussels of the fact that Palestinian Authority is beyond the threshold of a functional state.

World Bank, United Nations and the International Monetary Fund have certified the last months that PM’s state-building plans are on the right track and that they would be completed by the middle of 2011.

The announcement was made by the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, who said that the Authority has gone beyond the threshold of a functioning state at a panel with the donor states.

These developments come at a time when the negotiations between Israel and Palestinians have reached a deadlock, while the countries around them are boiling with political unrest, leading in most cases to the topple of the governments in office at the moment.

Flag of Palestine (onislam.net)

Furthermore, a meeting of the Quartet that mediates the relations between the Palestinians and Israelis, comprising European Union, United States, the United States and Russia, was called off.

It is thought that the Palestinians will ask the United Nations General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state, in case no peace was brokered by then.

Palestinian Prime Minister refused, when asked, to confirm such possibility, saying his government was not looking for a virtual state, but for a fully sovereign State of Palestine.

Quartet’s envoy, Tony Blair reiterated the need for continuing negotiation as a means, the only means to ensure the future of a state for Palestinians.11