PLO backs Palestinian referendum

The PLO leadership has backed a referendum call on a statehood plan from Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

The PLO leadership on Tuesday backed a referendum call on a statehood plan from Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas but without setting a date, a senior official said.

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"The executive committee approved Mahmud Abbas's decision to organise a referendum," a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee, former cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, said.

"President Abbas will announce the start of preparations for the holding of the referendum and its date by the end of the week. This gives Hamas additional time to change its position," he added.

Abbas has decided to call a snap referendum on a blueprint, which implicitly recognises Israel after 10 days of talks failed to clinch an agreement with the hardline Hamas faction on how to solve a political and financial crisis.

The document calls for a national unity government, an end to attacks in Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel on land conquered by the Jewish state in 1967.