The U.S. will push for Mahmoud Abbas to seek a different form of recognition, CNN reports. Obama set to meet with Abbas

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama will meet here Wednesday evening with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as the U.S. presses him to abandon plans to seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, the White House announced Tuesday night.

“What [Obama] will do is explain very clearly why we don’t think that’s the best course of action,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said after announcing the 6 p.m. session. “We understand that there is frustration that there hasn’t been greater progress [on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord], but we feel very strongly that frustration should not lead to acts that actually make the goal of a Palestinian state more difficult to accomplish.”


The White House had previously announced a meeting Wednesday morning between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Obama aides had not said whether the U.S. president would sit down with the Palestinian leader.

Rhodes had previously declined even to say whether Obama was trying to schedule a meeting with Abbas. Asked by reporters Tuesday about the late addition of Abbas to Obama’s schedule, Rhodes cited the U.S. president’s hectic agenda at the United Nations and the need to coordinate with allies working on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. “We worked to find the time,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said Obama’s separate talks with the two Mideast leaders will deal with the Palestinian statehood drive as well as the U.S. goal of getting both sides back to the negotiating table.

“A vote at the United Nations will not achieve Palestinian aspirations. Negotiations with Israel could succeed at achieveing Palestinian aspirations,” the White House aide said. “Irrespective of whatever takes place in New York in the coming days, the parties are going to have to find a way back to the table.”

While the U.S. has vowed to veto any Palestinian statehood proposal put before the U.N. Security Council, there were increasing indications Tuesday night that such a showdown — and a potential outbreak of anti-American anger — could be forestalled.

Abbas has vowed to present his formal statehood request to the Security Council on Friday after addressing the U.N. General Assembly, but diplomats say the council could defer action for weeks or months by referring the proposal to a subcommittee for study.

Sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that a “silent agreement” exists between Western governments to postpone any vote on Palestinian statehood beyond Friday.

Haaretz also said Abbas would be interested in a delay because it would give him additional time to negotiate with the United States.

The United States is working on a last-ditch plan to head off a vote by having Abbas submit a letter for statehood recognition to the United Nations Security Council without actually pressing for a vote, CNN reported earlier Tuesday.

Abbas’ letter — which would spare the U.S. a veto of statehood that would likely be condemned around the world — would be accompanied by a statement from the Mideast Quartet, consisting of the U.N., the European Union, the United States and Russia, that outlines the terms under which Israeli-Palestinian negotiations would resume.

A Palestinian official said the proposal is being considered a serious option. “We don’t need a vote right away,” the official told CNN. “We see this as the beginning of a process.”

Rhodes indicated Tuesday that the prospects for any Palestinian resolution in the Security Council are difficult to predict.

“It’s a question of whether — how this issue is handled within the Security Council, what the support is for it in the Security Council, but the United States position is clear that we will oppose any action that comes to the Security Council and, if necessary, we’ll veto it,” he told reporters.

Israel also indicated openness to the possibility of Abbas submitting a letter without the Security Council holding a vote. One Israeli official told CNN, “From our side, I think we could accept it.”

The Obama administration has consistently maintained that “direct negotiations” are the only way to reach a two-state solution and that the Palestinian bid for statehood at the U.N. is “counterproductive.”

On Monday, Abbas said he would press on with his statehood bid Friday, even while noting that “all hell has broken out against us” because of his plan.

“We will go to the U.N. because there is no contradiction between negotiations and going to the U.N.,” Abbas told reporters while en route to New York City.

Gerstein reported from New York; Lee reported from Arlington, Va.