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Thursday, September 08, 2011

PA minister: State will come from "diplomatic, political, and military pressure"

From Daily Star Lebanon:
A successful statehood bid at the United Nations would not stand in the way of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees eventually exercising their right of return, Palestine’s Social Affairs Minister said Wednesday.

In an interview with The Daily Star, Majeda al-Masri discussed some of the stickier aspects of the potential Palestinian state, and how it might affect the future of Lebanon’s approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian refugees are only temporarily in Lebanon, and they will definitely return to their homeland,” said Masri. “Their return can never be an obstacle to Palestine’s right for permanent membership in the U.N.”

Masri emphasized that statehood would not negate the status of Lebanon’s Palestinians as refugees, saying that if the state is accepted “refugees will still be here in Arab countries as guests until they come back. Their rights will be [protected] here … within [the framework] of what we are following up with the countries [where Palestinians live].”

...“In collaboration with governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations, we have put in place a strategy for social protection [in Palestine],” Masri said, adding that this work cannot be separated from efforts to develop the Palestinian state.

“The effort put in by Palestinian NGOs and the [Palestinian] government is part of the state building that will be completed through diplomatic, political, and military pressure.”
"Military pressure"? Whatever could Al-Masry ("The Egyptian") have meant by that?