BICOM

Prime Minister David Cameron reiterated that Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through talks with Israel as US and Israeli representatives at the United Nations (UN) warned that a Palestinian bid to upgrade its UN status would damage the peace process.

UN General Assembly president, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuc Jeremic yesterday confirmed that a debate on upgrading the status of the Palestinian UN delegation from a non-member ‘observer entity’ to a non-member ‘observer state’ would be held in mid-November. The Palestinian Authority hopes that the implications of UN statehood will pave the way for widespread recognition of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders. However, speaking at the annual dinner of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, David Cameron made his government’s position clear, saying “There is no path to statehood except through talks with Israel… So if the Palestinian plan is simply posturing with the UN rather than negotiating with Israel, Britain will never support it.”

In a discussion on the issue yesterday at the UN Security Council, US representative Susan Rice strongly opposed the Palestinian upgrade initiative, saying “Unilateral actions, including initiatives to grant Palestinians non-member state observer status at the United Nations, would only jeopardize the peace process and complicate efforts to return the parties to direct negotiations.”

Israel’s UN envoy Ron Prosor reiterated Israel’s position that issues of Palestinian statehood and borders can only be resolved within the context of bilateral negotiations. He said, “Peace must be negotiated…It cannot be imposed from the outside,” arguing that the Palestinian upgrade bid is a clear breach of the Oslo Accords, a series of agreed principles on self-government in the Palestinian territories signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the 1990s. Prosor asked, “How can Israel be expected to abide by the same agreements that the Palestinian leadership ignores whenever it is convenient?”