US should take 'important' role in stopping unilateral Israeli measures: Palestinian official

Ramallah, Sep 3 A senior Palestinian official has said that the US should take its "important" role in stopping the unilateral Israeli measures in the Palestinian territories, mainly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Hussein al-Sheikh, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, made the remarks on Friday during his meeting with Barbara A. Leaf, the visiting US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to an official PLO statement.

"Stopping the Israeli measures represented in (building) settlements, incursions and daily killings, and preserving the historical status in Jerusalem would establish a political horizon leading to an end to the Israeli occupation," al-Sheikh told Leaf.

After a three-day trip to Tunisia that ended on August 31, Leaf is currently visiting Israel and the West Bank to discuss US cooperation with Israel and the Palestinian Authority during her another three-day trip in the region that will end on September 3, according to a US government statement.

On Thursday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in a press statement that Palestine's accession to the UN as a full-fledged state would be high on the agenda during the visit of Leaf, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US refuses to allow Palestine to become a full member state in the UN, al-Maliki noted in the statement.

In 2012, the UN General Assembly granted Palestine a non-member observer state, allowing the Palestinian Authority to participate in some voting processes in the General Assembly and join some UN agencies.

Full UN membership would give the Palestin an official international recognition of an independent state they seek to establish along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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