Palestinian UN bid this month, says Abbas

The Palestinians will submit a bid to the General Assembly for nonstate membership of the United Nations later this month, president Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday.
“We’re going to the United Nations in November 2012, not 2013, or 2014,” Abbas said at an event commemorating the eighth anniversary of the death of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“Israel’s hysterical reaction to our UN bid is due to its desire to continue the occupation and we are under pressure of late from multiple parties to waive our just demand, but we will not,” Abbas added.
The UN bid was “the only way to address the assault of settlement activity and to save the two-state solution,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians are coordinating with Russia, as well as Swiss and French experts, on the exhumation of late president Yasser Arafat, Abbas said yesterday.
“We are currently in coordination with the French investigators, the Swiss experts, and also the Russian government to open the tomb,” Abbas said.