Abbas requests full U.N. membership despite fierce objections from U.S., Israel


UNITED NATIONS (AP) ― The Palestinians brushed aside heated Israeli objections and a promised U.S. veto Monday, vowing to submit a letter formally requesting full U.N. membership when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the General Assembly.

As the Palestinians edged closer to seeking statehood recognition from the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Abbas to meet with him in New York. The Israel leader said he wanted to resume peace talks, upping the pressure on Abbas and building on the frenzied diplomacy swirling around the Palestinians bid.

Regardless, Abbas said he had not been swayed by what he called “tremendous pressure” to drop the bid for United Nations recognition and instead to resume peace talks with Israel. Senior aides to the Palestinian leader said Abbas was undaunted by threats of punitive measures.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, however, there was still time to find a solution to the diplomatic crisis.

Clinton told reporters in New York that the U.S. is talking with all sides to defuse the standoff, noting that the week was young and there were still several days to seek compromise.

She joined Netanyahu in calling for new talks and repeated the U.S. position that the only path to a separate state for Palestinians is through negotiations with Israel.

Nabil Shaath, senior aide to Abbas, told the Associated Press that the Palestinian leader informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during their meeting Monday that he would present him with a letter requesting full membership on Friday, ahead of Abbas’ speech to the General Assembly. Abbas also met with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Any candidate for U.N. membership must submit a letter to the secretary-general stating it is a “peace-loving” state and accepts the U.N. Charter. Ban is expected to examine the Palestinian letter and then send it to the 15-member U.N. Security Council which must give its approval before a vote in the larger General Assembly.

Another Abbas aide, Mohammed Ishtayey, said the letter will state: “Palestine is a peace-loving state and has contributed to human civilization, that it has succeeded in building state institutions.” It would also include the need to consider the pre-1967 Mideast War borders as those of the Palestinian state, he said.

Shaath said the secretary-general promised to “speed up the discussion of the request” in his office.

Palestinians have for decades complained of being guests in their own land. Although any submission by the Palestinians could wait weeks or months for U.N. action, it has sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity with Mideast mediators scrambling to find a way to draw the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Shaath said last ditch efforts to dissuade the Palestinian president from approaching the Security Council had failed and that offers had fallen short of Palestinian aspirations. He said Palestinians had been threatened with harsh punitive measures but that they had decided to move ahead nonetheless.

The comment appeared to refer to the warnings by some in the U.S. Congress that current and future financial aid to the Palestinian Authority could be in jeopardy if they move ahead with the membership bid.

Each side in on-again-off-again Israeli-Palestinian talks has accused the other of being an untrustworthy and intransigent participant in the peace process.

In a statement, Netanyahu called on Abbas to begin “direct negotiations in New York and continue them in Jerusalem and Ramallah.” But the statement provided no other details or indications that Netanyahu was willing to cede to any of the Palestinians’ demands.

Ban “reiterated his support for the two-state solution and stressed his desire to ensure that the international community and the two parties can find a way forward for resuming negotiations within a legitimate and balanced framework,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said after the secretary-general met with Abbas.

The comment underscored the desires of some members of the Quartet of Mideast mediators ― the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia ― that Palestinian statehood should not be granted before a resumption of peace talks. While the four international mediators have repeatedly called for renewed negotiations, Russia supports U.N. membership for Palestine.

The long-stalled negotiations have been unable to solve key issues including Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and the status of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital.

Quartet envoys met for the second time in two days, trying to craft a way forward that would be enough to persuade the Palestinians to drop their bid and have enough caveats for Israel to get its support. Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed at a Monday night meeting that the Quartet envoys should meet again Tuesday, officials said.