* Palestinian bid set to pass in General Assembly
* Abbas to defy Obama’s objections – Palestinian aide
* Raises new doubts about any renewed U.S.-led peace effort
(Adds White House statement, context and background)
By Noah Browning and Matt Spetalnick
RAMALLAH, West Bank/WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (Reuters) –
P alestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told President Barack Obama
on Sunday he was intent on pressing ahead with a Palestinian bid
for United Nations recognition as a non-member state, despite
the U.S. leader’s objections.
Abbas explained his decision to Obama in a phone
conversation, according to Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdaineh.
Continued defiance of Washington on such a sensitive issue casts
further doubt on the chances for any renewed U.S.-led
Israeli-Palestinian peace drive following Obama’s re-election on
Tuesday.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority on Wednesday
circulated a draft resolution to U.N. member states that calls
for upgrading its U.N. status to that of observer state, despite
objections by the United States and Israel.
“President Abbas cited the reasons and motives for the
Palestinian decision to seek non-member statehood as continued
Israeli settlement activity and the continued attacks on
Palestinians and their property,” Abu Rdaineh said.
The White House said Obama, responding to a message from
Abbas congratulating him on his re-election, used the call to
reiterate “opposition to unilateral efforts at the United
Nations.”
The Palestinians are currently considered an observer
“entity” at the United Nations.
Frustrated that their bid for full U.N. membership last year
failed amid U.S. opposition in the U.N. Security Council,
Palestinians have launched a watered-down bid for recognition as
a non-member state, similar to the Vatican’s U.N. status.
The proposal, which could be put to a vote in the General
Assembly later this month, would implicitly recognize
Palestinian statehood and could also grant access to bodies such
as the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where they
could file complaints against Israel.
The upgrade seems certain to win approval in any vote in the
193-nation General Assembly, which is composed mostly of
post-colonial states historically sympathetic to the
Palestinians.
Palestinian diplomats also are courting European countries to
further burnish their case.
Israel and the United States say Palestinian statehood must
be achieved by negotiation and have called on Abbas to return to
peace talks that collapsed in 2010 over Israeli settlement
construction in the occupied West Bank.
“In his discussion with President Abbas, President Obama
reaffirmed his commitment to Middle East peace and his strong
support for direct negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians with the objective of two states living side by
side in peace and security,” the White House said.
Obama pledged to make Middle East peacemaking a top priority
when he took office in 2008 but on-again-off-again U.S.
diplomacy yielded no tangible progress.
With Washington focused on the West’s nuclear standoff with
Iran and seeking to avert any unilateral Israeli attack on its
nuclear sites, the White House has shown no real appetite for
any immediate new Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative.
NETANYAHU SPOKE TO OBAMA EARLIER
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had
strained relations with Obama and now faces a Jan. 22 general
election in Israel, spoke to the U.S. president by phone on
Thursday and congratulated him on his re-election.
This comes after amid a flare-up of violence in the region.
Israel said it was poised to escalate attacks on the Gaza Strip
on Sunday following a surge of rocket and mortar salvoes by
Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
The Palestinians seek to establish a state in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – which is
controlled by the Islamist Hamas group who are bitter rivals of
the Palestinian Authority – and want East Jerusalem as its
capital.
Abbas has billed the U.N. move as a last-ditch attempt to
advance long-stalled talks to achieve statehood by first having
the world recognize Palestine as a state under Israeli
occupation and its borders.
But U.S. officials have warned that the U.N. bid is
counterproductive and will make it harder for the two sides to
agree to renewed negotiations.
On Saturday, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz
threatened to stop collecting tax revenues for the Palestinian
Authority and not hand over any money if Abbas continued to seek
U.N. observer state membership.
The aid-dependent Palestinian economy in the West Bank faces
financial crisis due to a drop in aid from Western backers and
wealthy Gulf states, as well as Israeli restrictions on trade.
(Additional reporting By Ali Sawafta; Editing by Stephen Powell
and Eric Walsh)
