The upcoming United Nations votes on a Palestinian state are expected to be postponed to an unspecified date, sources in New York said Tuesday.

Postponements are expected for both the UN General Assembly vote on the declaration of an independent Palestinian state, as well as the UN Security Council vote on full Palestinian membership, the sources said.

While media sources are preoccupied with whether the United States will succeed with its attempts to secure a majority of opposing votes to decline the Palestinians’ bid for statehood, sources say a “silent agreement” exists between Western powers to act to postpone the vote at the Security Council, should Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas go ahead with the request.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe hinted at the apparent vote postponement. In an interview with ‘Europe 1’ radio on Tuesday, Juppe said that “diplomats are still hoping to prevent a crisis. It doesn’t appear that a vote (on a declaration of Palestinian independence) will happen this Friday and that is in order to allow time for diplomacy to renew peace talks.”

Juppe added that “there’s a procedure for dealing with such requests and it can take a few days or weeks more.”

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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