Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday he would demand full membership of the United Nations when he goes to the U.N. General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said America is not involved in trying to tone down a draft U.N. resolution on Palestinian statehood.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the U.N. General Assembly on the same day that the Palestinian Authority presents its statehood bid to the Security Council.
The threatened U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood has pundits and politicians apoplectic.
When general debate begins at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 21, the eyes of all Israel supporters will be focused on New York City, to see what becomes of the Palestinian Authority’s plan to unilaterally declare statehood.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threw Turkey\’s weight behind a Palestinian bid for statehood and criticized Israel in an address to Arab states meeting in Cairo geared to buttress his image as a leader of a region in turmoil.
The European Union has still not decided on a united position on a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations which the United States has said it will veto, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday.
The Obama administration said unequivocally it would veto any U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Recognition of a Palestinian state could, in theory, lead to Israeli officials being dragged repeatedly before the International Criminal Court in the Hague for claims regarding its settlement policies in the West Bank, legal experts say.
The Palestinians have vowed to upgrade their U.N. status, either by seeking full United Nations membership for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank or recognition as a \”non-member state.\”
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