US pulls out stops to head off Palestine UN confrontation

The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly beginning on September 20.

The administration has made it clear to Mr Abbas that it will veto any request presented to the UN Security Council to make a Palestinian state a new member outright.

However, the United States does not have enough support to block a vote by the General Assembly to elevate the status of the Palestinians’ non-voting observer “entity” to that of a non-voting observer state. The change would pave the way for the Palestinians to join dozens of UN bodies and conventions, and it could strengthen their ability to pursue cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Senior US officials said the administration wanted to avoid not only a veto but also the more symbolic and potent General Assembly vote that would leave the US and a handful of others opposed.

The US government fears that in either case a wave of anger could sweep the Palestinian territories and the wider Arab world at a time when the region is in tumult. President Barack Obama would be put in the position of threatening to veto recognition of the aspirations of most Palestinians or risk alienating Israel and its political supporters in the US.

“If you put the alternative out there, then you’ve suddenly just changed the circumstances and changed the dynamic,” a senior administration official involved in the flurry of diplomacy said. “And that’s what we’re trying very much to do.”

“It’s not clear to me how it [the UN vote] can be avoided at the moment,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian negotiator who is now executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine in Washington. “An American veto could inflame emotions and bring anti-American sentiment to the forefront across the region.”

The US State Department late last month issued a formal diplomatic message to more than 70 countries urging them to oppose any unilateral moves by the Palestinians at the UN. The message, delivered by US ambassadors to their diplomatic counterparts in those countries, argued that a vote would destabilise the region and undermine peace efforts, though those are, at least for now, moribund.

Obama administration officials say that and the new peace proposal – to be issued in a statement by the Quartet, the diplomatic group focused on the Middle East comprising the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – could persuade potential supporters to step back from a vote on recognition, and thus force Mr Abbas to have second thoughts.

In essence, the administration is trying to translate the broad principles Mr Obama outlined in May into a concrete road map for talks that would satisfy Israel, give the Palestinians an alternative to going to the UN and win the endorsement of Europe.

Diplomats are labouring to formulate language that would bridge stubborn differences over how to treat Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and over Israel’s demand for recognition of its status as a Jewish state.

A statement by the Quartet would outline a series of meetings and actions to resume talks to create a Palestinian state.

The Quartet’s members are divided over the proposal’s terms and continue to negotiate them among themselves, and with the Palestinians and Israelis.

The Americans claim that Mr Abbas had recently indicated that he would forgo a UN vote in favour of real talks.

However, a senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, angrily dismissed the US proposal as inadequate and said a vote would go ahead regardless.