RAMALLAH, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official said on Friday that the United States 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 Organization, made the remarks during his meeting with Barbara A. Leaf, the visiting U.S. 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 Aug. 31, Leaf is currently visiting Israel and the West Bank to discuss U.S. cooperation with Israel and the Palestinian Authority during her another three-day trip in the region that will end on Sept. 3, according to a U.S. government statement.
On Thursday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in a press statement that Palestine's accession to the United Nations as a full-fledged state would be high on the agenda during the visit of Leaf.
The United States refuses to allow Palestine to become a full member state in the United Nations, 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 Palestinians an official international recognition of an independent state they seek to establish along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. ■
