The scene is heating up as the Palestinian Authority presses ahead in its bid for full UN membership for a Palestinian state, writes Ezzat Ibrahim from New York In a controversial step that would put the Palestinian Authority (PA) in a possible confrontation with the United States, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has determined to submit a full-member state application to the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday. The US administration has launched a frenzied political campaign to stifle the PA bid in the Security Council by pushing permanent and non-permanent member states to vote against or to abstain. The Palestinians need nine votes to get the application through the council and Washington wants to avoid a major backlash in its relationship with the Arab world by vetoing the Security Council bid from the onset. Maen Areikat, Palestine Liberation Organisation representative to the United States, said. US diplomacy and the International Quartet on Middle East Peace are leading efforts to avert the Palestinian bid. "The Quartet had the opportunity to take a real position but wasted a chance in the last July meeting (in Washington) by failing to reach a definitive formula," Areikat added. The political and diplomatic battle, meanwhile, has spread all over Manhattan as Palestinian and Arab diplomats work against time to fend off the American and Israeli campaign against the state bid. The Palestinian official said the application would go through the following steps: apply for full membership to the office of the secretary-general, which in turn will submit to a report to the Security Council; the council mandates a committee before voting to accept or reject granting full membership; if the council rejects the application, then Palestinians can refer the application to the General Assembly. Hence, it is not possible to apply for both the Security Council and the General Assembly at the same time. One Palestinian official said that the Palestinians can return to the Security Council again because there are no restrictions on applying several times to get a full membership recognition by the Security Council. He said that the Palestinian delegation in New York is engaged in "a diplomatic street fight" to mobilise votes for Palestine's bid in both the General Assembly and Security Council. Almost all countries recognise the legitimacy of the Palestinian bid, but the Europeans are partially opposing the Security Council move to avoid a confrontation with the United States. On the other hand, Palestinians have refused the Quartet's efforts to issue a statement calling for the resumption of negotiations as a substitute for the UN bid. PA officials confirm that any statement in the future must be complementary to the current thrust with a reference to international resolutions, particularly Resolution 242 and the fate of refugees, Jerusalem and the complete cessation of settlement building in the West Bank. Supported by the Arab Spring and a successful global campaign, Palestinian diplomats are feeling, maybe for the first time in the conflict, that the wind is on their side, even though the US administration and Israel are threatening unexpected repercussions from the UN bid.
