Ashrawi: PLO position based on 1967 borders

The PLO position in negotiations is based on international recognition of 1967 borders, senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi said Tuesday. Briefing reporters at the illegal Gilo settlement, Ashrawi dismissed suggestions that large settlements would become part of Israel in a peace deal. Gilo and other settlements are designed to prevent a contiguous, viable Palestinian state, Ashrawi said, "So all those statements saying that ‘everyone knows that the major settlements will stay with Israel’ are simply not true. "Such statements are designed to deliberately mislead by misrepresenting our negotiation’s positions. Our position is based on an international recognition of the 1967 border as the border of the State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem.” Israel announced that 942 new settler homes had been approved in Gilo on Aug. 13, a day before negotiations resumed in Jerusalem. The last round of direct talks collapsed over Israel's refusal to extend a partial freeze on settlement building. If Israel continues to expand settlements, the PLO "will have no other option but to seek recourse to international law and international agencies," Ashrawi said. "In the last meeting of the PLO Executive Committee we decided that if the international community does not stop Israel from pursuing such a policy, we’ll have to go to international judicial venues in order to put an end to such Israeli measures that are designed to destroy the chances of peace, and this is perfectly within our rights."