High stakes diplomacy prior to Palestinian U.N. bid; Abbas expects ‘difficult’ situation

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said he anticipates a “very difficult” situation after he approaches the UN to seek full membership for a Palestinian state later this week.

“The Palestinian people and their leadership will pass through very difficult times after the Palestinian approach to the United Nations through the Security Council to seek full membership for the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.

The Palestinian leader made the comments to reporters as he arrived in New York, where he is set to submit later this week a formal request that the United Nations admit a Palestinian state as a full member of the international organization.

Abbas called “on the Israeli people to recognize the state of Palestine, proving that there can be a two-state solution, and not lose an opportunity for peace.”

The bid is fiercely opposed by Israel, which accuses the Palestinians of trying to circumvent negotiations, and also by Washington, which has threatened to veto the move at the Security Council.

Diplomatic efforts

Top Palestinian and Israeli leaders held talks in New York early Monday amid frantic diplomatic efforts to avoid a showdown over a Palestinian bid to seek full U.N. membership as a state.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak held an unannounced meeting a day ahead of the U.N. General Assembly, which is being dominated by a Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition that the United States has threatened to veto.

Fayyad told reporters that the two had discussed “security issues” and the Palestinian Authority’s “readiness to govern.” Israeli officials did not comment on the meeting, according to AFP.

A last-ditch international push began in New York on Sunday to try to re-launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the U.N.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Asked before the meeting if either could report any progress, Clinton replied, “We are meeting to talk about the way forward.” Asked if that meant no progress, she said, “I didn’t say that,” according to Reuters.

Senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators -- also met on Sunday, an EU official said, as part of an intense effort in recent weeks to persuade the Palestinians to drop their U.N. plans.

The official said the diplomats were assessing the situation, but gave no further details.

Washington and Israel say a U.N. vote over Palestinian statehood would damage chances for peace negotiations, arguing that a state can only be created through a settlement between the two sides.

But in a televised speech on Friday, Abbas said he would request the Palestinians’ “legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine.” The Palestinians say almost 20 years of on-off direct talks on statehood envisaged by interim peace accords have hit a dead end.

Blair: showdown can be avoided

The United States says it will veto in the Security Council a Palestinian application for full U.N. membership, but former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves an envoy for the Quartet, said on Sunday a showdown could still be averted.

Blair told reporters: “The Palestinians are here at the U.N. now, so the question is ... can people find a way that enables the Palestinians to take a significant step forward to statehood at the same time as not ending up in a situation where the U.N. replaces negotiations?”

The Quartet has for months been trying to put together guidelines for future peace talks, but so far without being able to agree on key details.

Blair told the ABC Television program This Week a proposed statement would set out “where we want to go on issues like borders ... And I think what’s going to be really important is also to give some sense of a timeframe, a timeline, if you like, for a successful negotiation.”

The last round of the U.S.-backed talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu collapsed nearly a year ago. The Palestinians pulled out after Israel declined to extend a partial moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank on land the Palestinians want for their state.

The Palestinians say they will not resume talks unless the moratorium is reinstated. Israel says talks should resume without preconditions but that it accepts the idea that the Palestinians should ultimately have their own state.

U.S. President Barack Obama is under pressure from Congress to back Israel’s stance. Republican House speaker John Boehner told a Jewish group in Cincinnati on Sunday the U.S. commitment to Israel “should be stronger than it’s ever been.”

Apart from borders, key points of contention include the status of Jerusalem, the future of Palestinian refugees and whether Israel should be acknowledged as a Jewish state.

Equal member state at U.N.

Heading off or watering down the Palestinian resolution had been the goal of international diplomats. If they can accomplish that, they hope to parlay it into a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders where the two sides would re-launch negotiations. But the Palestinians have refused to back down and give up the little leverage they hope to win.

“The aim of this is try to elevate the Palestinians to a more equal footing so that this disparity that existed over the last 18 years, which allowed Israel to exploit it to its advantage, can end and they can talk now to an equal member state of the United Nations,” said Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestinians’ top representative to the U.S., The Associated Press reported.

Areikat told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the Palestinians could accept an alternative, but it must include “clear terms of reference to return to the negotiations, clear time frame and an endgame.”

Even with a loss in the Security Council, the Palestinians were expected to take their case for recognition to the General Assembly, where they enjoy widespread support and the U.S. cannot block it.

A nod from the General Assembly could give the Palestinians access to international judicial bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

The Israelis fear such courts would target them unfairly, which is something that the Jewish state’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said had been outlined by the Palestinians themselves.

They are “going to the U.N. to get this state not to make peace but to challenge Israel’s legitimacy in international arenas and to try to undermine the peace process,” he told CNN.

His comments reflected Israel’s concern about further isolation and underscored the country’s mistrust of the United Nations.

“It is too late now,” Abbas aide Nabil Shaath told AP. "The proposals (that) came to us ... are not good even as a starting point.”

The aim of this is try to elevate the Palestinians to a more equal footing so that this disparity that existed over the last 18 years, which allowed Israel to exploit it to its advantage, can end and they can talk now to an equal member state of the United Nations

Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestinians’ top representative to the U.S.