The Palestinian Authority is determined to involve the UN in the management of its conflict with Israel over the long-overlooked aspiration of the Palestinian people for a state, even if based on a fraction of historic Palestine.

However, there is significant and increasing pressure being applied to the Palestinian Authority to change course and not to present the UN Security Council with a resolution announcing the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

Some voices are openly warning against this course of action, such as those coming out of Washington, stating clearly that the US, a permanent member of the Security Council, would veto any such resolution. Economic threats have also been waved in the face of the Palestinian authorities, not only from Washington but even from some European capitals where public opinion is predominantly in favour of supporting the establishment a Palestinian state, according to recent polls.

On Monday evening, following her participation in a session of an Arab ministerial meeting on the Palestinian developments, Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, said that the 27 members of the EU are insisting that a Palestinian state should be only established through Palestinian-Israeli direct negotiations.

European diplomatic sources acknowledge that enormous pressure is being exercised over their capitals by Israel and the US to convince them to refrain completely from supporting the demarche of the Palestinian Authorities to solicit Security Council recognition of their state – with or without the approval of Israel.  

In a joint Arab-European meeting which was held at the Arab League on Sunday to discuss the chances of some level of European support, many European representatives said that they are willing to give a nod of approval to a Palestinian attempt to solicit the non-binding support of the UN General Assembly for the announcement of a Palestinian state, rather than the Security Council, where resolutions if adopted are binding.

However, according to one Cairo-based European source, the vote in the General Assembly will be the prerogative of the independent states. And, he added, if the language of the Palestinian demand which is to be put to the General Assembly is seen as ignoring the Israeli demand for a negotiated settlement, it will likely receive few European votes.

Arab officials are openly speaking about the determination to solicit the intervention of the UN. On Monday evening, the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad Ben Jassem, whose is the current chair of the Arab League, and Saeb Erikat, the top Palestinian Authority negotiator, spoke of pursuing the Palestinian goal "before the UN".

The UN could be either the General Assembly or the Security Council. However, as Arab diplomats who spoke on conditions of anonymity said, it is now becoming more likely that the destination of the Palestinian Authority is the General Assembly and not the Security Council. Indeed, Erikat, who used to be vocal about specifying the Security Council as the destination of the Palestinian diplomatic effort, is no longer making this reference.

The 66^th session of the General Assembly opens at the UN headquarters today. Arab delegations are expected to start flying to the UN for consultations in a week.