Israeli FM, ambassadors to meet over Palestine’s UN bid

PanARMENIAN.Net - Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman plans to hold an urgent meeting of Israeli ambassadors to European countries in Vienna on Thursday, Nov 6, over the Palestinian bid for non-member state status at the United Nations General Assembly this month, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in turn, was in Jordan on Monday to consult with the Arab League on how best to lobby world leaders in advance of the vote.

The PA is likely to make its bid in the latter part of the month. The move will upgrade the Palestinian standing at the United Nations, and is seen as a de facto declaration of statehood, even though it would not grant them full UN membership.

It could, however, allow them the right to legally pursue Israel though the International Criminal Court.

Liberman is likely to help the ambassadors hone the message that the measure is part of the Palestinians’ diplomatic war against Israel and that they are unlikely to pursue peace after the vote.

Jerusalem has warned that the bid is a breach of the Oslo Accords, which binds both parties to resolve the issue through a negotiated solution, and has threatened punitive measures if the PA moves forward with the statehood recognition attempt.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called on Abbas to achieve statehood through a negotiated solution rather than through unilateral measures.

Netanyahu publicly invited the PA president to sit down with him and negotiate without preconditions on Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting and on Wednesday during a press conference in Paris.

On Friday, however, Abbas told Channel 2 that the Palestinians intend to press forward with their United Nations bid. He added that he would only negotiate with the understanding that the two-state solution would be based on the pre-1967 lines.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said any direct talks must wait until after the UN vote, which the Palestinians look certain to win given that they have majority support in the UN General Assembly. The vote cannot be vetoed.