The Palestinians have begun talks with Egypt on setting out the maritime borders of their hoped for future state and the resources they can extract from the sea, their UN ambassador to the United Nations said Friday, according to AFP.
The goal is to establish an exclusive economic zone off the coast of Gaza under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, said ambassador Riyad Mansour.
The Palestinians became party to this and other UN treaties and agencies when they gained non-member observer status at the United Nations in November 2012, a unilateral move which is against the Oslo Accords it signed with Israel.
The talks with Egypt are at the preliminary stage, having begun recently with Egypt at the foreign minister level and then continued at the expert level, Mansour said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has consulted "top lawyers in the field" to prepare its case and train its officials in the workings of maritime law, he added. READ MORE
