Signs U.S. Won't Support Any Palestinian-UN Deal for Statehood

Some U.S. officials now traveling in the Middle East say the Palestinian plan to pursue statehood in the UN will not get crucial U.S. support.

A U.S. State Department official said Monday night that the Palestinian plan to get approval for statehood for itself will not be supported by the U.S. in the UN's Security Council. The Jerusalem Post reports that spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters: "We support the creation of a Palestinian state, but "we are convinced that has to be achieved through negotiations between two parties." That sentiment was echoed by a visiting delegation of US lawmakers Monday who urged leaders of the Arab world not to get behind the idea. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) told reports at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem. "I presume the American delegation to the Security Council would veto such a resolution, I call on our allies in the Arab world to stop this now. It is going be a destructive waste of time. Let us do everything we can to get Israel and the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table; that is the way to make progress here." Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware) said: "The proposal is dead on arrival, it is going nowhere." Representative Howard Berman (D-California), who also chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said, "The Palestinians' pursuit of unilateral statehood gives the impression that they have given up." Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-South Carolina) said: "There is a window of opportunity, if people would step up to the plate and exercise leadership. A state, so necessary to ensure a better life for the Palestinian people, would not be secured by a unilateral resolution that would take a desperate situation and make it more chaotic than it already is." But the Palestinians are not to be swayed, not yet anyway. Mahmoud Abbas is already lobbying for a UN-sponsored state. He will meet in Cairo with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday, then travel in Latin America, where he's slated to stop in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia and Mexico to pitch his bid for statehood. Abbas will consult in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday and then travel across Latin America to pitch a bid for UN acceptance of Palestinian statehood, Erekat said at a news conference in Ramallah. He plans to visit Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Abbas' advisor Saeb Erekat says, "The Palestinian leadership calls on the world to support this step." Abbas made the move towards the UN after Israel refused to stop building settlements as a condition to restarting the talks. The negotiations have been stalled since March, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came to power in Israel. Netanyahu's response was to say that he is prepared right now to begin talks again with the Palestinians, without any preconditions. But he issued a new warning that should the Palestinians gain statehood through the United Nations, Israel would know how to respond. Netanyahu refused to detail what that would mean, but he gave a general idea.

"A unilateral Palestinian declaration establishing a state would have no significance and would be an additional mistake on the part of the Palestinian leadership, who never miss an opportunity to make a mistake, Israel is not obligated to respond to irrelevant declarations, but it is clear that it breaks all ground rules, and it would open to Israel a whole range of possible responses."