CAIRO: Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority, on Thursday called on the "free world" to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations.
"Al-Azhar asks all the countries in the free world to stand alongside Palestine so that it can enjoy stability like any other country in the world, and vote for its recognition" at the UN, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, grand imam of the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, said in a statement.
He also "renewed his call to the free world to oppose the American administration" which announced that it would veto the Palestinian bid to seek full UN recognition for their state.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is due to submit that request to the UN Security Council on Friday after addressing the General Assembly, despite staunch opposition from Washington and Israel, and the US decision to veto the request.
Hamas rejects statehood quest
Hamas said on Friday that Palestinians should liberate their land, not beg for recognition at the UN, firmly rejecting Abbas’s quest for statehood.
Speaking hours before Abbas was due to ask formally that the United Nations recognize a Palestinian state, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said this would not bring independence.
"Our Palestinian people do not beg for a state. …States are not built upon UN resolutions. States liberate their land and establish their entities," said Haniyeh who heads the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip.
"The Palestinian people have been fighting and resisting and struggling for more than 60 years, offering up thousands of martyrs, thousands of prisoners…for the sake of liberating the land," he added, speaking to reporters after morning prayers.
"The state will not come about through this bargaining and this political blackmail," he said.
Abbas says he is turning to the United Nations for statehood recognition because almost two decades of on-off peace talks with Israel have failed to produce a lasting treaty.
However, the United States has said it will veto any statehood resolution, arguing that the unilateral move will make it harder to secure peace.
Haniyeh said the US veto showed Abbas was wasting his time and should focus instead on resolving the political divisions with Hamas. "This is the choice to make, not running behind a mirage," he said.
