BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that plans to push a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction, would have a negative impact on the prospects for peace.

Reports have emerged that the PA this week circulated a draft resolution to UN Security Council members, which condemns Israeli construction in the West Bank. It is apparently similar to a proposed resolution from 2011, which was vetoed by the United States, although this version also condemns settler violence.

Abbas is set to travel to New York on 22 April, ostensibly to attend a UN climate change conference, but he will apparently use the opportunity to press Security Council members and bring the resolution to a vote. He is also set to visit Paris, Berlin and Moscow on route to New York, in order to garner support for the proposal. Haaretz reports that the Arab League will meet on 20 April to discuss the motion, but that some members have warned the PA not to move ahead with it.

Meanwhile, yesterday Netanyahu also warned that such a resolution would only further distance the prospects of peace. He said, “Abu Mazen [Abbas] is taking a step that will push negotiations further away,” and that, “The only way to advance peace is by direct negotiations and Abu Mazen is avoiding this.” Earlier this week, Netanyahu responded to Abbas’s claim that he suggested the two meet, by inviting Abbas to visit him for talks at any time.

Israel and leaders in Washington have long insisted that a peace accord can only be agreed via bilateral talks, under the framework of final status discussions set out in the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. However, there are reportedly fears in Israel that US President Obama is considering making a statement during the final months in office, by relinquishing Washington’s veto on such a resolution, paving the way towards its approval.