RAMALLAH
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday signed 20 international treaties, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in response to the UN Security Council (UNSC)'s rejection of a Palestinian statehood bid.
Abbas had repeatedly threatened to apply for Palestinian membership in the ICC – which would allow the PA to sue Israel for war crimes – if the UNSC failed to commit Israel to withdrawing from occupied territories by the end of 2017.
Abbas signed the ICC membership applications following a public speech delivered in Ramallah after an urgent PA meeting was held to discuss a response to the draft resolution's failure.
"We expected to win nine votes at the UNSC, but one member state abstained at the last minute," Abbas said, without specifying which one.
"Every demand listed in the draft resolution was in line with international law," he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Abbas said he would not be deterred by the UNSC's rejection of the draft resolution, which had called for a three-year deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank.
Speaking at a rally commemorating his Fatah movement's 50th anniversary, he said that the council's rejection of the bid was "not the end of the world."
"Whoever thought we would lose hope and disappoint our people is mistaken," Abbas told thousands of Fatah supporters in Ramallah.
He also appeared to hint at the rally that he would sign the ICC's Rome Statute, which he had threatened to do if the draft resolution was voted down at the UNSC.
"We have other paths to pursue and we will do so tonight," Abbas had said.
The UNSC on Tuesday rejected a draft resolution calling for an end to the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories within three years.
The motion, which was submitted on Monday by Jordan after it had been agreed upon by Arab states, failed to obtain the minimum nine votes from the 15-member council, with both the U.S. and Australia voting against the proposal.
The U.K., Nigeria, Rwanda, South Korea and Lithuania all abstained from voting, while Jordan, France, Russia, China, Argentina, Chad, Chile and Luxembourg all voted in favor.
The resolution sets the end of 2017 as the deadline for Israel to fully withdraw from the occupied territories and to declare East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
Direct, U.S.-brokered Palestinian-Israeli talks ground to a halt in April when Israel refused to release a group of Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so.
Netanyahu to take 'steps' against PA's ICC application
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened on Wednesday to take steps – he did not specify – after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier in the day.
Netanyahu said Israel would work to defend its army, a short time after Abbas signed the statute in response to the failure of the United Nations Security Council to approve a Palestinian draft resolution for setting a deadline for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
"We will rebuff this additional attempt to force diktat on us just like we rebuffed the Palestinian appeal to the U.N. Security Council," Netanyahu said.
He did not, however, give details of the steps he planned to take against the Palestinian move.
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