US President Barack Obama was to publicly push for the Palestinians to drop a statehood bid when he addresses the UN General Assembly as he scrambled to head off a diplomatic clash, .
Obama was to follow up his speech yesterday with separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as he seeks to coax both parties back to direct peace talks.
At the same time, US officials conceded that they probably could not prevent Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from moving forward with a request to the UN Security Council for full Palestinian membership.
STATEHOOD
Recognizing that Abbas seems intent to proceed, Obama was expected to privately ask the Palestinian leader to essentially drop the move for statehood recognition after Abbas delivers a formal letter of intent to the UN tomorrow.
“The president will say, frankly, the same thing in private that he’ll say in public, which is that we do not believe that this is the best course of action for achieving Palestinian aspirations,” White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.
Obama was also to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday.
The Obama administration has pledged to veto any Palestinian statehood bid, arguing that only direct peace negotiations, not a UN vote, would allow the Palestinians to achieve the benefits of statehood.
STALLED
With peace talks stalled, the US and international partners have been negotiating intensely this week over the steps it would take to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.
The new approach being considered would see the “quartet” of Middle East peace mediators — the US, the EU, the UN and Russia — issue a statement addressing both Palestinian and Israeli concerns and setting a timetable for a return to the long-stalled peace talks, officials close to the diplomatic talks said.
Israel would have to accept its pre-1967 borders with land exchanges as the basis for a two-state solution, and the Palestinians would have to recognize Israel’s Jewish character if they were to reach a deal quickly, officials close to the talks said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomacy.
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