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The US and the EU stepped up last minute efforts on Monday to avoid a showdown over Palestine’s bid for statehood at the UN General Assembly this week, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meeting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton here to discuss the “way forward.”
Representatives of the Middle East quartet — US, EU, Russia and the United Nations also held discussions to work out a strategy for avoiding a confrontation at the UN as well as discuss ways to bring Israel and Palestine back to the negotiating table.
Clinton, who met Ashton at a hotel here, said, “We are meeting to talk about the way forward.” Clinton had said earlier that the only way of getting a lasting solution to the Israel-Palestine issue is through “direct negotiations between the parties, and the root to that lies in Jerusalem and Ramallah, not in New York.”
The Middle East diplomatic Quartet’s envoy Tony Blair was also expected to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The former British Prime Minister sounded hopeful of avoiding a UN showdown.
“I think there is a way of avoiding a confrontation,” Blair said in an interview to ABC News. “The only way in the end we are going to get a Palestinian State — and this week is all about advancing Palestinian statehood...is through negotiation.”
He said, he understood the Palestinian sentiment of approaching the UN for Statehood, saying “they are perfectly entitled to go there.”
“But I think what we will be looking for over the next few days is a way of putting together something that allows their claims and legitimate aspirations for Statehood to be recognised whilst actually renewing the only thing that’s going to produce a State, which is a negotiation directly between the two sides.”
He said the quartet was trying to put together a statement that will “essentially be a framework of reference for the negotiations” and sets out the main issues to be negotiated.
Former President Bill Clinton, also appearing on the ABC show, said it is important to have good-faith negotiations to settle the issue.
“This is another one of those areas where it might be good politics for the Palestinians for their people and the Israelis with theirs to have this standoff. The most important thing is to have good-faith negotiations. So the UN resolution is an act (of) frustration on the part of the Palestinians that can’t lead to a state anyway, and we’ll just have to see what happens.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, frustrated with the lack of progress in talks with Israel, has vowed to approach the UN with his bid for Statehood, even as the US said it will veto any such request in the Security Council.
The US and Israel have insisted that direct negotiations is the only way for creation of a Palestinian State.
The Palestinians could also head straight to the UN General Assembly, asking for their status to be elevated to observer State from the current observer entity.
The change in status would allow Palestinians access to international judicial bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Representatives of the Middle East quartet — US, EU, Russia and the United Nations also held discussions to work out a strategy for avoiding a confrontation at the UN as well as discuss ways to bring Israel and Palestine back to the negotiating table.
Clinton, who met Ashton at a hotel here, said, “We are meeting to talk about the way forward.” Clinton had said earlier that the only way of getting a lasting solution to the Israel-Palestine issue is through “direct negotiations between the parties, and the root to that lies in Jerusalem and Ramallah, not in New York.”
The Middle East diplomatic Quartet’s envoy Tony Blair was also expected to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The former British Prime Minister sounded hopeful of avoiding a UN showdown.
“I think there is a way of avoiding a confrontation,” Blair said in an interview to ABC News. “The only way in the end we are going to get a Palestinian State — and this week is all about advancing Palestinian statehood...is through negotiation.”
He said, he understood the Palestinian sentiment of approaching the UN for Statehood, saying “they are perfectly entitled to go there.”
“But I think what we will be looking for over the next few days is a way of putting together something that allows their claims and legitimate aspirations for Statehood to be recognised whilst actually renewing the only thing that’s going to produce a State, which is a negotiation directly between the two sides.”
He said the quartet was trying to put together a statement that will “essentially be a framework of reference for the negotiations” and sets out the main issues to be negotiated.
Former President Bill Clinton, also appearing on the ABC show, said it is important to have good-faith negotiations to settle the issue.
“This is another one of those areas where it might be good politics for the Palestinians for their people and the Israelis with theirs to have this standoff. The most important thing is to have good-faith negotiations. So the UN resolution is an act (of) frustration on the part of the Palestinians that can’t lead to a state anyway, and we’ll just have to see what happens.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, frustrated with the lack of progress in talks with Israel, has vowed to approach the UN with his bid for Statehood, even as the US said it will veto any such request in the Security Council.
The US and Israel have insisted that direct negotiations is the only way for creation of a Palestinian State.
The Palestinians could also head straight to the UN General Assembly, asking for their status to be elevated to observer State from the current observer entity.
The change in status would allow Palestinians access to international judicial bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
