Establish, within no more than two years, a Palestinian state, without waiting for the end to Israeli occupation. That is the idea launched by the Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, according to who such a move "would force the entire world to face up to its responsibility to end the occupation and allow our people to live free in their homeland".

Fayyad put forward his proposal last night, in a speech at Al-Quds University, Abu Dis in the West-Bank suburb of Jerusalem. "I call - he said - upon our people to unite around the project of establishing a state and to strengthening its institutions . . . so that the Palestinian state becomes, by the end of next year or within two years at most, a reality."  

Fayyad has asked the international community to "exert pressure on Israel to fulfil its commitments to achieve the solution of two states, to open the path to peace in the region”.

The idea launched by Fayyad, which is not new, will find difficulty within the Palestinian world, rather than at an international level where in all likelihood it will meet with broad support. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum says that "Fayyad has no right to speak on national unity" because, along with President Mahmoud Abbas they instigated a vicious attack on Hamas. "He has created the most harm to the Palestinians, by expanding the working relationship with the Zionist enemy."