BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – The Palestinian Authority will seek to take advantage of the qualitative support by some European countries against Israel’s policies in the Palestinian territory through creating an international front to urge countries to take more strict positions against Israel, says the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs.

Speaking to Ma’an in Bethlehem, Riyad al-Maliki said, “We can’t face the Israeli procedures single-handedly, so we will take advantage of the positive positions of countries and try to build an international front to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation and its expansionist policies.”

Al-Maliki added that the PA was not in a hurry “because we have previous commitments we don’t want to breach."

Legal and political options are being studied carefully, added al-Maliki. “It is all about logistic and administrative procedures such as the Palestinian passport design, and official correspondence between the state of Palestine and other countries. We are studying this very deeply to make sure we are not breaching previous commitments.”

He added: “The qualitative change in the European position would not have happened if we had not won recognition of a non-member state in the UN, especially in countries which have very strong relations with Israel.”

The situation is now different, he said, as these countries will not agree that Israel continues to violate international law.

Asked about the United States' possible punitive procedures, al-Maliki said all the threats came from the Congress. “They are talking about punitive procedures against the PA, and we are watching to see what these procedures are. So far, what happened was that Israel stopped transferring Palestinian tax revenue.”

He highlighted that the PA would ask the Arab League to activate the financial network Arab countries pledged.