Abbas Says Blair ‘Cooking Something’ to Stop UN Statehood Bid
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to move forward with a campaign for full membership in the United Nations, offering a slim possibility of halting the bid in the face of U.S. objections.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair is still working on a deal to restart peace talks with Israel and derail a vote on Palestinian statehood when the UN General Assembly meets later this month, Abbas told a group of reporters yesterday. He said the package would have to be based on the West Bank’s 1967 borders with agreed-upon land swaps and include a freeze on Jewish settlement construction, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.