New Effort To Prevent Palestinian Bid for Recognition

By Barak Ravid (Haaretz Service) June 28, 2011

In a last-minute effort to stop the Palestinians from seeking unilateral recognition at the United Nations in September, the Mideast Quartet is planning to present a new international peace plan at a summit in Washington on July 11, senior Israeli and European officials said Tuesday.

The Quartet’s envoys — representing the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia — will be mapping out a peace plan based on U.S. President Barack Obama’s Mideast speech on May 19, which is supposed to present an alternative to the Palestinian move at the UN.

The summit will be taking place at a very critical time — only four days before the appointed date that the Palestinians set to officially appeal to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and to send him Palestine’s request for full membership at the UN.

The Palestinians must appeal to the UN chief on July 15 if they wish to have sufficient time to suggest the subject for a vote during the UN General Assembly session in mid-September.

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