Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour, speaks during a news briefing following a UN Security Council meeting at the world body on Wednesday, (AP).
The UN Security Council on Wednesday pushed back a decision on a Palestinian bid to join the United Nations in a move that will give more time to international efforts to revive direct talks.
But UN envoys for the two foes wrangled over who is to blame for the latest year-old negotiations deadlock, with diplomats warning both sides are hardening their positions.
The 15-member Security Council (UNSC) sent the bid made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last Friday to a special membership committee to give its verdict.
A full session of the council met for barely two minutes in the first public discussion of the bid that the United States has vowed to veto when it comes to a vote.
"Unless I hear a proposal to the contrary I shall send the application of Palestine to the committee on new members," said Lebanese Ambassador to the UN Nawaf Salam, president of the council for September. No comments were made and Salam hurriedly brought the gavel down to declare the meeting over.
The membership committee, made up of all 15 UNSC nations, will hold its first meeting on Friday.
Normally, the review period for a membership application is a maximum of 35 days, but Western diplomats say this limit can be waived and the process could theoretically drag on.
Abbas was given a standing ovation in the UN General Assembly last Friday after making the historic application.
The United States and Israel, strongly opposing the bid, say only direct Israel-Palestinian talks can create a Palestinian state.
The International Quartet on the Middle East — the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations — has since launched a new campaign to get the two sides back into talks with a set timetable.
Palestinians ended US-brokered talks one year ago when Israel ended a moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied territories. Israel's approval of another 1,100 homes in East Jerusalem has further infuriated the Palestinian leadership.
Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, called the construction "offensive, provocative and illegal" and "1,100 answers" to thwart efforts to revive talks.
He said it was "a clear answer by the Israeli government to the Quartet, to negotiations and to the refusal to abide by the global consensus on the fact that settlements are an illegal obstacle to peace."
Ron Prosor, Israel's UN ambassador, said the Palestinians are using "every pretext in order not to go into negotiations."
"Is it easy, the answer is no. Is it frustrating — yes. Do we have sleepless nights, yes. But at the end of the day that is the only way forward," he said of the talks process.
"A Palestinian state, a real Palestinian state, a viable Palestinian state, will not be achieved (by) imposing things from the outside but only in direct negotiations," he stated. "There are no shortcuts."
When asked about the approval of new settlements, Prosor said Israel was ready to negotiate on Jerusalem with other final status topics.
Israeli officials have signalled a hard line on East Jerusalem, however, and Prosor told reporters: "Jerusalem, I would like to stress, that is the capital of the Jewish people. This is our heart. Jerusalem, if I may say so, was the capital of the Jewish people when London was still a swamp."
The ambassador acknowledged that Israel is working with the United States to get Security Council members to oppose or abstain in any vote on Palestinian membership.
"Yes, we are both working, and truthfully, on both sides to have a bloc of countries that basically would say, 'Ladies and gentlemen, go back to direct negotiations; sit down and talk this thing with each other,'" the ambassador told reporters.
The Palestinians are also sending high level delegations to council members such as Gabon, Bosnia and Nigeria.
So far, Western diplomats say, the Palestinians have only six certain votes on their side in the 15-member council.
Security Council resolutions need nine votes in favour and no vetoes from the five permanent members in order to pass.
Some Western envoys said they were unclear what the council's seldom-convoked membership committee would be able to do with the Palestinian application, given that the council's divisions will be replicated on the committee.
Most Security Council committees work on the basis of consensus. When the committee last convened in July to consider South Sudan's membership application it was able to wrap up its work in two days as no country was opposed.
The bitterly contested Palestinian issue will be very different. One envoy suggested the committee might ultimately have to pass it back to the full council.
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