By AGENCIES
Arab News
RAMALLAH: The Palestinians on Thursday launched a campaign in support of their UN membership bid despite US opposition, as their leaders met to reaffirm plans to become the world body's 194th member state.
Washington, however, confirmed it would veto any such bid and an EU source said European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was to travel to the Middle East next week for talks on the Palestinian push.
The so-called "National Campaign for Palestine: State 194" is part of the build-up to Sept. 20, when President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to submit a formal request to the United Nations that it accept the state of Palestine as a member.
Abbas on Thursday met senior Palestinian representatives including the central committee of his Fatah party, the PLO's executive committee and leaders of various Palestinian political parties.
The PLO committee "affirms the need to continue at the next session of the UN, the process to obtain recognition of membership for a state of Palestine on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital," PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said in a statement after the session.
"The Palestinian leadership believes that attaining this goal will encourage the relaunch of a serious peace process and new negotiations with the clear objective of a two-state solution on the 1967 borders," he said, referring to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War.
The leadership meetings came just 10 days before Abbas is expected to fly to New York where he will present a formal membership request to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sept. 20.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington's opposition to such a move by the Palestinians rather than direct negotiations with Israel "should not come as a shock."
"So yes, if something comes to a vote in the UN Security Council, the US will veto," she said.
George Mitchell, the former US special envoy for Middle East peace, said there was little chance US officials would be able to persuade Palestinian leaders not to seek greater recognition at the United Nations.
Mitchell, who stepped down in May after more than two years of fruitless efforts to make peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, was downbeat about the odds of making progress in the coming months but more optimistic over the longer term.
Meanwhile, the EU source in Brussels said that Ashton will leave early next week for Cairo to meet Arab League officials and Abbas for talks on the bid, also opposed by Israel.
She will also travel to Israel as part of her efforts to ensure the Palestinian resolution "can get broader support," the source added, declining to be named.
If the bid is vetoed in the Security Council, the Palestinians plan to turn to the General Assembly where they are expected to easily win the votes needed to upgrade their representation from observer body to non-member state.
As the leaders met in Ramallah, the official Palestinian campaign of support for the bid got under way with around 100 people marching to UN headquarters in the West Bank town to hand in a letter to the UN representative asking that Ban support the membership application.
The letter said the campaign would continue "until the state of Palestine is finally admitted as member state number 194."
Chanting "We want a state," the marchers waved Palestinian flags and held up signs demanding that Palestine be admitted to the UN and also calling on Arab states to support the bid.
Sweden's Foreign Ministry expressed support for efforts toward Palestinian statehood as the Scandinavian country held its first official welcoming ceremony for a Palestinian representative.
Palestinian Ambassador Hala Husni Fariz met Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Thursday.
Like many European countries, Sweden this year upgraded the status of the Palestinian representation from general delegation to mission.
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