UNITED NATIONS?? President Barack Obama told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that U.N. action would not achieve a Palestinian state and the United States would veto any Security Council move to recognize Palestinian statehood, the White House said.
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"We would have to oppose any action at the U.N. Security Council including, if necessary, vetoing,'' Ben Rhodes, the White House national security council spokesman, told reporters after Obama met Abbas in New York.
Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas and former chief of negotiations, said before the meeting with Obama that Abbas had no plans to agree to a delayed vote on U.N. membership.
Obama echoed comments earlier by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said direct negotiation was the only way to achieve a stable Middle East peace and the Palestinian effort to secure U.N. recognition of statehood "will not succeed."
Netanyahu made the remarks at a meeting with Obama, who reiterated the unwavering U.S. commitment to Israel and told world leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly that efforts to impose peace on Israel and the Palestinians would not work.
Obama and Netanyahu spoke at the start of a meeting the two leaders had on the sidelines of the U.N. session.
Obama sought to head off a showdown over Palestinian statehood and pull his Middle East policy back from the brink of diplomatic disaster, Obama told the U.N. General Assembly, "There is no shortcut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades."
Video: Obama: No shortcut to peace in the Middle East (on this page)Obama asserted that peace would not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N., but rather only through a resumption of direct negotiations.
He said the parties are the only ones who can agree on the issues that continue to divide them. "Ultimately it is Israelis and Palestinians who must live side by side," he said.
With the limits of U.S. influence on the moribund peace process never more clear, Obama had no new demands for the Israelis, either, beyond saying that both sides deserved their own state and security.
"Ultimately peace depends upon compromise," Obama said, adding that that was the lesson from Northern Ireland and Sudan. "That will be the path to a Palestinian state," he said.
Obama faces tricky task at the U.N.Beyond the public eye, U.S. and other officials began to concede that an effort to deter Palestinians from bringing the matter before the world body had failed, and the so-called Quartet of Mideast peace mediators worked on a deal intended to address the longstanding concerns of both sides. The Quartet consists of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
Under that compromise plan, the Quartet would issue a statement in which Israel would have to accept its pre-1967 Mideast War borders, with land exchanges, as the basis for a two-state solution, and the Palestinians would have to recognize Israel's Jewish character, officials close to the talks said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomacy.
The Palestinians say almost two decades of fruitless negotiation has left them no choice but to turn to the world body.
Obama's remarks on Israel and the Palestinians came in a speech that also swept up the convulsions of what Obama called "a remarkable year." He talked about the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's dictatorship in Libya, the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, and the emergence of South Sudan as the world's newest nation.
"Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way they will be," Obama said. "The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. Technology is putting power in the hands of the people."
Obama also spoke of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he inherited and are winding down. "We are poised to end these wars from a position of strength," he said.
First Read: Perry criticizes Obama on IsraelOn Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, derided Obama's position on Israel at a pro-Israel rally in New York, slamming the president for a "policy of appeasement" toward Palestinians.
"The people of Israel and the people of this world will never question where I stand when it comes to Israel," Perry said at a press conference.
He criticized the president's position that the 1967 border established between Israel and Palestine be the starting point for further peace negotiations.
He also called for U.S. aid to be cut off to the Palestinian leadership.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also released a statement Tuesday ahead of Obama's remarks at the U.N., accusing the president of "throwing Israel under the bus."
Dan Senor, a former George W. Bush adviser and expert on Israel's economy, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday that Perry, who had brought Israeli politicians to stand behind him as he spoke, had crossed a line.
Video: Todd: Perry throws 'stink bomb' during Mideast speech (on this page)"The US policymakers and legislators can debate how to use funding for leverage," Senor said. "But to me what is most offensive was to bring a foreign national politician ? an elected official ? and drag him into our domestic politics. That is pretty unprecedented."
The deputy speaker of Israel's parliament was on stage with Perry, Senor said.
"It looked like he was dragging in a foreign politician to endorse the campaign of Rick Perry against the incumbent president of the United States," he said.
Palestinians face US counteroffensive on UN vote
Escape route?
Despite no signs of a breakthrough, there still may be some breathing space to prevent a diplomatic train wreck at the United Nations.
Under one emerging scenario, described by people familiar with the diplomacy, Abbas would submit his request for U.N. membership but the Security Council would delay action on it for weeks. The Quartet trying to mediate the peace process ? the U.N., U.S. European Union and Russia ? would then issue a finely balanced statement giving each side enough political cover to resume talks.
Despite that, most analysts remain skeptical that the latest diplomacy by Obama and others will be enough to spur serious negotiations after earlier efforts hit a dead end.
Obama's vision of multilateral diplomacy helped him earn a Nobel Peace Prize after only 11 months in office and made him wildly popular in Europe and elsewhere. He promised a dramatic shift from what was widely perceived as the go-it-alone "cowboy diplomacy" of predecessor George W. Bush.
While many world leaders have welcomed the change in U.S. tone, the euphoria over Obama's collaborative approach has worn off, and questions about global economic worries have overshadowed "soft power" issues he previously espoused.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44606988/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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