Palestinians vow request for UN membership

UNITED NATIONS -- The Palestinians brushed aside Israeli objections and a promised U.S. veto, vowing yesterday to submit a letter requesting full UN membership before their president, Mahmoud Abbas, addresses the General Assembly at week's end.

Amid frenzied global diplomacy, Abbas said he had not been swayed by what he called "tremendous pressure" to drop the bid for United Nations recognition and resume peace negotiations with Israel instead.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Abbas to meet with him for talks, marking yet another effort to curtail the Palestinians' bid for membership.

Abbas will present the letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, ahead of the Palestinian leader's speech to the General Assembly, according to senior Abbas aide Nabil Shaath.

Although any submission by the Palestinians will mean a wait of weeks or months for the UN action, it has sparked diplomatic activity with Mideast mediators scrambling to find a way to draw the two sides back to the negotiating table.

The Palestinians' bid at the UN is the first step to statehood for Palestinians, who have for decades complained of being guests in their own land.

Shaath said the secretary-general promised to "speed up the discussion of the request."

He said last-ditch efforts to dissuade Abbas from approaching the Security Council had failed because the offers had fallen short of Palestinian aspirations, and he added that some parties had threatened the Palestinians with punitive measures but that they had decided to move ahead.

The comment appeared to reflect the warnings by some in the U.S. Congress that current and future financial aid to the Palestinian Authority could be in jeopardy if they move ahead with the membership bid.

"We do not seek a confrontation with the United States," Shaath said. "We have no desire to confront the U.S."

Netanyahu, in a statement, called on Abbas to begin "direct negotiations in New York and continue them in Jerusalem and Ramallah."

The UN's Ban must receive the letter from Abbas and approve it before it moves forward in the arduous process for a new member.

Ban "reiterated his support for the two-state solution and stressed his desire to ensure that the international community and the two parties can find a way forward for resuming negotiations within a legitimate and balanced framework," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said after the secretary-general met Monday with Abbas.