setUoYouRPROFILE's blog: "tufui"

UNITED NATIONS—The U.S. and its European allies plan to delay a U.N. Security Council vote on Palestinian membership well beyond this week in a bid to revive direct peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis and sidestep an American veto,gucci outlet said officials briefed on the talks. President Barack Obama will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to dissuade the Palestinians from seeking U.N. recognition at the Security Council. But U.S. and European diplomats said they expected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make good on his pledge to formally apply for U.N. membership Friday through the Security Council, after his speech here before the annual General Assembly. Officials briefed on diplomacy said Washington and its European allies are going to refrain from a quick vote on the Palestinian initiative at the Security Council and instead refer the application to a panel for further study. This process, which could take months, will allow the so-called Quartet of powers seeking to broker Middle East peace—which comprises the U.S., U.N., European Union, and Russia—to continue negotiating with the Palestinians and Israelis to try to create a new negotiating framework acceptable to both sides. Officials also said Mr. Abbas could seek enhanced observer states at the U.N. through a vote at the General Assembly, which would allow the Palestinians to join such international groups as the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the International Criminal Court. If so, the U.S. and Europeans would try to water down the resolution in a way that might keep the peace process alive. Officials are calling this option "GA Light." U.N. officials said this week that Mr. Abbas was taking a large diplomatic risk by going to the Security Council, as it was unclear if he could garner the nine votes—of a total 15 members—needed to pass the resolution. Members such as China, Russia, South Africa and Lebanon are believed to be firmly in the Palestinian camp. But European powers France and Britain could abstain, while other countries including Nigeria and Colombia are seen as undecided. "This could be a good outcome for the Palestinians in the near time," said a U.N. official involved in the negotiations. The Obama administration, meanwhile, has vowed to use the U.S. veto as a permanent member of the Security Council to block the Palestinian initiative. U.S. lawmakers have said they would move to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinian Authority if Mr. Abbas pushed his U.N. initiative. Some U.N. officials said the move to delay a Security Council vote could buy Mr. Abbas more time to seek an accommodation with Washington, while still telling his people that he pushed ahead with his campaign for statehood. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, who is attending the U.N. General Assembly this week, also hinted at this approach during a Tuesday radio interview with Europe 1. "Diplomats are still hoping to prevent a crisis. It doesn't appear that a vote [on Palestinian statehood] will happen this Friday and that is in order to allow time for diplomacy to renew peace talks." He added: "There's a procedure for dealing with such requests and it can take a few days or weeks or more." Palestinian diplomats in recent days said they were committed to seeking U.N. membership through the Security Council this week, but acknowledged that the process was largely out of their hands once they submitted an application to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday. These Palestinian officials said they expected the U.S. to aggressively lobby the Security Council to vote against their initiative, or to abstain from voting, to deny Mr. Abbas the nine notes needed. Mr. Obama and other senior U.S. officials argue that the U.N. initiative would undercut longer-term efforts to forge peace in the Mideast. The Palestinians officials said they recognized the U.S. and its allies could use the U.N. bureaucracy to slow their diplomatic momentum. "They might go for a tactical delay," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said in an interview Sunday. "This really might take time." On Wednesday, Mr. Obama will try to convince Mr. Abbas that going to the U.N. is counterproductive to his ultimate goal, and that statehood will require negotiations with Israel, said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication. "It's just an opportunity to have a very frank exchange of views on the effectiveness of using the United Nations as a vehicle for achieving a Palestinian state," Mr. Rhodes said. "The parties are going to have to find a way back to the table."