Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki says Palestinians will submit request to Security Council next Friday, ending speculation over whether they would risk U.S. veto; Netanyahu plans to address General Assembly on same day.
Associated Press
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Thursday that the Palestinians will submit a bid for full membership at the United Nations Security Council on September 23, but said that they would be open to other suggestions.
The remarks by Malki put an end to speculation that the Palestinians might avoid a showdown with the United States by sidestepping the Security Council and going directly to the UN General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer.
Malki said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will personally submit the Palestinian request for membership to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after addressing the General Assembly on the afternoon of Sept. 23. In the meantime, he said the Palestinians would listen to suggested alternatives.
“We will see if anyone carries with him or her any credible offer that will allow us to look into it seriously and to be discussed in the Palestinian leadership. Otherwise, on the 23rd at 12:30, the president will submit the application,” Malki told foreign journalists in Ramallah.
The U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval.
The Palestinians will likely still end up at the General Assembly with scaled-back ambitions, however, if the U.S. exercises its veto power in the Security Council as expected.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu announced Thursday that he plans on flying to New York on Wednesday to attend the discussions, and to address the General Assembly on Friday, the same day the Palestinians plan to submit their bid for full membership to the Security Council.
The U.S. has been on a furious diplomatic offensive to try to keep the Palestinians from going to the UN in their statehood quest, saying negotiations are the only way to produce a Palestinian state.
Israel also opposes the UN move, which the Palestinians launched after concluding that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations – stalled for nearly three years – were not going to produce any breakthroughs at this time.
Al-Malki’s comments came as U.S. and other international envoys were shuttling back and forth between Jerusalem and Ramallah in an effort to avert a diplomatic crisis over the Palestinians’ UN bid.
Netanyahu to address UN on day Palestinians submit statehood bid
PM tells reporters in Jerusalem that Israel does not receive ‘fair hearing’ at UN, but he has ‘decided to tell the truth.’
Haaretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he will address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, September 23, the day on which the Palestinians say they will submit their bid for full UN membership.
Netanyahu is due to leave for New York next Wednesday, and will attend the annual General Assembly session. Israel had originally intended to dispatch President Shimon Peres to New York for the General Assembly, but was warned by diplomats that this would only give more weight to the Palestinian move.
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“The General Assembly is not a place where Israel usually receives a fair hearing,” Netanyahu told a press conference with the Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas in Jerusalem on Thursday. “But I still decided to tell the truth before anyone who would like to hear it.”
“I have decided to convey the twin messages of direct negotiations for peace and the quest for peace,” Netanyahu told reporters.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said earlier Thursday that the Palestinians will definitely go ahead with their bid for full membership at the UN Security Council on September 23.
EU seeks “limited upgrade” of Palestinians’ UN status
Ashton proposal includes specific mention of talks, does not rule out full UN membership for Palestinian state in future, say diplomats.
Reuters
The European Union hopes to persuade Palestinian leaders to drop their plans for full United Nations membership this month in return for a nuanced upgrading of their UN observer status, EU diplomats said on Thursday.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, went to the Middle East this week to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians with the aim of reviving peace talks and averting a Palestinian statehood bid at the UN General Assembly, which begins its annual gathering on September 21.
The United States has warned that such an attempt would damage chances of reviving talks and sent envoys to the region this week to lobby the Palestinians.
Israel has also said any such move would put an end to negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would address the UN next week and urge the Palestinians to negotiate peace with Israel rather than pursue the bid for full UN membership for a Palestinian state.
Diplomats said Ashton was trying to negotiate a package that could include a statement by the Quartet of Middle East negotiators laying out guidelines for future talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
In Brussels, diplomats said her proposal included a text that would not rule out full UN membership for a Palestinian state in the future, but focuses for now on a lesser upgrade of their status coupled with a specific mention of talks.
“Our idea is to push for an upgrade of the Palestinian status, without excluding full status in the future, but with a reference to negotiations,” one senior EU diplomat said.
It was not immediately clear whether this would be an upgrading to the status of “non-member state”, as held by the Vatican, or some other formulation. Currently the Palestinian Authority has non-member “observer” status at the UN.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Wednesday “no retreat” from the plans to request full UN membership in the absence of talks with Israel, which were frozen a year ago in a dispute over settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Ashton has played an increasingly active role in the Quartet, which groups the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations, since becoming foreign policy chief in December 2009. But her efforts have been complicated by internal divisions in Europe over the Palestinian statehood bid.
Should Palestinian statehood be brought to a vote in the UN, the EU’s 27 member states could split into three camps, with some opposing the bid, others backing it and several abstaining.
France, in particular, appears to be more receptive to the Palestinians’ arguments, whereas Germany opposes unilateral declarations without a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
To succeed, Ashton would have to persuade U.S. diplomats to get on board. Washington has said that if the Palestinians ignore entreaties and seek full membership status, it will use its veto in the UN Security Council.
In Jerusalem, a Netanyahu aide said the Israeli leader did not rule out talks with Abbas even if the Palestinian president presented the UN membership request.
The aide noted that the General Assembly probably would not vote on such a membership upgrade resolution until early October, keeping the door open for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas.
