Palestinians hurtle towards UN showdown

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas Monday set a collision course with Israel and the United States determined to try to force a vote on his bid for full UN membership for a Palestinian state.

Flying in the face of strong opposition, Abbas met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to tell him he would go ahead with the controversial move on Friday despite mounting international pressure to put off the attempt.French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned of the risk of an “explosion of violence” in the Middle East if the Palestinian conflict is not resolved, saying the Palestinian status quo was “neither acceptable nor tenable.”


French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet with Abbas on Tuesday, and European Union foreign ministers were also to try to break the impasse.“I think there is a way of avoiding a confrontation,” he said Sunday.


Israel says the UN bid is a Palestinian attempt to circumvent direct negotiations, which ground to a halt in September 2010 after Israel ended a moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied territories.