(JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to bring the Palestinian statehood bid to the United Nations Security Council.
“We need to have full membership at the U.N.,” Abbas said Friday in Ramallah in a speech that was broadcast on television. “We need a state, a seat at the United Nations.
“We are going to the Security Council,” he promised.
The United States has said that it will veto any Palestinian statehood bid at the Security Council. Security Council authorization is required for a Palestinian state to gain U.N. membership.
The Palestinians also could go to the U.N. General Assembly to request recognition as a non-member observer state. They would be likely to win a vote in the General Assembly, where the U.S. lacks a veto.
The U.S. has tried to convince the Palestinians to abandon their U.N. effort. The Obama administration has worked to find a framework that would instead restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
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