Palestinians Push U.N. Bid for Statehood
The Palestinians pressed ahead on Wednesday with a U.N. draft resolution that would set a course toward statehood, ratcheting up pressure on the United States and Israel to join a renewed peace effort.
The Palestinian move at the United Nations came as the European parliament overwhelmingly backed recognition of a Palestinian state, the latest assembly in Europe to adopt a motion to that end.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said the draft would be submitted to the Security Council after the Palestinians agreed with France on a merged text.
Arab ambassadors were set to meet at the United Nations at 1630 GMT to endorse the text and formally decide on whether Jordan, a Security Council member, will submit the measure.
An Arab-backed draft of the text had previously set a deadline of November 2016 for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, but France has pushed for a softer resolution that would instead set a timeframe for negotiations on a final settlement.
The new text would set a two-year deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final agreement that would provide for a new Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the shared capital.
No firm deadline on an ending the Israeli occupation would be included but the resolution would call for a phased withdrawal of Israeli security forces over an agreed transition period.
"The draft that will be presented today (Wednesday) is the French draft based on Palestinian observations and decisions," Malki told AFP.
"It will be presented to the Security Council as a blueprint, and could be put to a vote 24 hours after that," he added.
U.N. diplomats however cautioned that action may not be imminent.
"We are having a meeting at 11:30 with the Arab Group to discuss and we will see how it goes," Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Dina Kawar told reporters.
France was also planning to meet with Jordan and the United States later in the day.
The Palestinians began circulating a draft at the end of September, after President Mahmud Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly that it was time to fast-track Palestinian statehood.
The text as it stood had no chance of approval, especially as Washington has wielded its veto in the 15-member council repeatedly in the past in support of Israel.
The U.S. administration opposes moves to bind negotiators' hands through a U.N. resolution -- particularly any attempt to set a deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank.
But the threat of the draft seems to have been enough to jolt the international community into action.
France stepped into the fray last month and, with Britain and Germany, began discussing options for a separate resolution.
Keen to head off a diplomatic crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held a flurry of meetings this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian negotiators and European ministers.
Kerry suggested a U.N. resolution could play into the hands of Israeli hardliners as the country heads toward elections in March.
"Many of us share a deep sense of urgency about this," he said. "But we're also very mindful that we have to carefully calibrate any steps that are taken for this difficult moment in the region."
Asked what kind of resolution Washington might be able to support at the U.N., Kerry said Monday that the U.S. administration has "made no determinations... about language, approaches, specific resolutions, any of that."
The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, shepherded by Kerry, collapsed in April amid mutual recriminations.
This summer's 50-day war in Gaza followed and tensions have boiled over in the West Bank and east Jerusalem with a series of deadly "lone wolf" attacks on Israelis and frequent clashes between security forces and stone-throwing Palestinians.
Abbas's Palestinian Authority is under increasing public pressure to take action, and with efforts at peace talks exhausted has turned to the Security Council.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, warned this week that the international community could not simply ignore the Palestinian question.
"If we do not succeed, the Palestinian people are not going to go away. The Palestinian question is not going to evaporate," he said.
"We will be entering into a new stage."
Mansour warned of more confrontation on the ground and said the Palestinians were ready to take action at the General Assembly and at the International Criminal Court.
"We are better equipped today to defend our cause in the international arena than before," Mansour said.
Frustration with the stalled peace process has also grown in Europe, where lawmakers in Britain, France and Spain have all called in recent weeks for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
An EU court on Wednesday ordered the removal of Hamas from its terror blacklist, drawing an angry response from Netanyahu.
"It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil six million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing," he said.
Even Washington has expressed growing frustration with Israeli policies, including the continued expansion of settlements across Palestinian territories.
Another U.S. veto also risks angering key Arab allies, including partners in the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.
Source: Agence France Presse
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