UN Envoy for the peace process in the Middle East Nikolai Mladenov
RAMALLAH, Dec 13 (NNN-Xinhua) — Mahmoud al-Aloul, vice president of Palestinian Fatah party, on Thursday met with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Miladinov in the West Bank city of Ramallah over steps to facilitate elections in Palestine.
They discussed the latest developments on holding general elections in Palestine, and the means to allow the elections to take place in East Jerusalem as they did in 1996, 2005 and 2006, according to a statement by al-Aloul’s office.
Mounir Jaghoub, a Fatah spokesman, told Xinhua that the meeting came as part of “Palestinian efforts to hold elections in East Jerusalem.”
“It is not expected that Israel would easily allow Palestinian elections to take place in Jerusalem. That is why we are increasing our diplomatic endeavors,” he said.
In a tweet after the meeting, Mladenov expressed the UN’s “continuing efforts to support Palestinians in realizing their right to elect their leaders.”
On Monday, Palestine announced that it had officially asked Israel to allow Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to fully participate in Palestinian elections in East Jerusalem, after all Palestinian factions reached an agreement on the issue.
The last general elections in Palestine were held in 2006, while the last presidential elections were in 2005.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel wants all Jerusalem to be its eternal capital.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 and declared all Jerusalem as its eternal capital in 1980, a move that has never been recognized by most of the international community. — NNN-XINHUA