JERUSALEM: The Israeli deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Danny Ayalon, has warned that a Palestinian push for full membership of the United Nations in September would set the stage for ''confrontation and conflict'' with Israel.
In a press briefing on Monday, Mr Ayalon urged the international community to stand behind Israel and reject the Palestinian effort, instead persuading the Palestinian leadership to return to direct negotiations with Israel.
''The issue here is the basic route which the Palestinians opt for,'' Mr Ayalon said. ''Are they opting for negotiations, are they opting for co-operation, are they opting for normalisation of relations … or do they want to go for this unilateral route of confrontation and conflict? …''
Mr Ayalon, who over the past six months has travelled throughout Europe and South America to weaken the Palestinian effort, said it would be another low moment for the UN if a clear majority voted to recognise a Palestinian state.
Speaking after a meeting with the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, on Monday, the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, repeated his intentions. ''We will seek to go to the UN next September … to obtain membership for the state of Palestine,'' Mr Abbas said. ''Our way is to go to the Security Council. If we fail we will go to the General Assembly.''
Mr Stoere offered tacit support for the Palestinian plan.
Also on Monday, the Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry said that Damascus recognised a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital within the borders, in effect, before the 1967 Six-Day War.
Syria ''will treat the Damascus office of the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] as an embassy upon the publication of this statement'', the ministry added.
with Agence France-Presse