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Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/45e981e4-ae34-11e0-8752-00144feabdc0.html
Arab League Backs Palestinian Statehood Plan
(Financial Times-UK) Tobias Buck - The Arab League has given formal backing for an ambitious bid by the Palestinians for statehood at the UN. Nabil al-Arabi, Arab League secretary-general, said on Thursday that the group had agreed to "submit a call to the member states of the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state." The league, he added, would press both the UN Security Council and the General Assembly to support "full membership of a Palestinian state" at the UN. Palestinian officials were particularly angered by the U.S. position at a meeting this week of the Middle East Quartet, which brings together the U.S., UN, EU and Russia. According to several officials, the U.S. tabled a draft statement that called, among other things, on Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and to accept significant revisions to the pre-1967 "green line."