NEW YORK — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed his determination Monday to seek full United Nations membership, spurning the latest attempt by White House negotiators to avoid having to block the move and inflaming anti-American anger in the Middle East.
With the Obama administration having sided with Israel in pledging to veto the Palestinian statehood bid, mediators from the United States, Europe, Russia and the United Nations worked feverishly in closed-door meetings to find a formula to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks and to prevent a confrontation at the U.N. this week that could plunge the region deeper into turmoil.
“We continue to believe and are pressing the point that the only way to a two-state solution, which is what we support and want to see happen, is through negotiations,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. “And no matter what does or doesn’t happen this week, it will not produce the kind of outcome that everyone is hoping for.”
A member of Abbas’ delegation, however, said the Palestinians won’t be deterred from proceeding with their request for full U.N. membership, which, if approved, would be widely viewed as international recognition of Palestinian statehood and a rebuke to Israel.
“Our intention to pursue full membership in the United Nations is a fait accompli,” Husam Zomlot, the former Palestine Liberation Organization representative to Great Britain, said in a telephone interview. “The question now is how to take the fastest route possible, and we believe the fastest route is the Security Council.”
