The Palestinian leadership is under mounting pressure to abandon or modify its bid to win full UN membership, as a top Israeli diplomat admitted his country’s battle to prevent recognition of a Palestinian state was lost and warned of “violence and bloodshed” ahead.
Mohammad Shtayyeh, a senior member of the Palestinian team heading for New York next week, said: “There is very, very serious pressure on us but at the end of the day Abu Mazen [Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas] … has no choice‚ and no one can blame him.” Twenty years of negotiations had got nowhere, he said.
Amid intensifying diplomatic efforts to avoid a potentially damaging collision with the US, a series of high-level diplomatic delegations has visited Abbas over the past week. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, telephoned the Palestinian president to appeal to him to “avoid a negative scenario” when the UN general assembly opens in less than two weeks.
“Full story: Palestinians pressured by US and Quartet to drop bid for UN status“