Jordan on Tuesday launched a bid to win backing for a UN resolution on a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement that could be presented to the Security Council in the coming weeks, AFP reports.
Jordan’s Ambassador to the UN, Dina Kawar, said she would be meeting with representatives from Arab countries and council members to gauge whether there is support for a “unified text” on advancing Israeli-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace.
If a consensus can be reached, a draft resolution could be presented to the council later this month or in January, she said.
“We are going to try to make it before Christmas, if not it will be in January,” Kawar told reporters.
“We really want to get everybody on board. That’s our intention.”
The PA, which is being backed by the Arab League, has been pushing for a draft resolution that calls for ending the “Israeli occupation” by November 2016.
The text ran into opposition from the United States and other members of the council, opening the way for the Europeans led by France to begin talks on a separate draft that would set a timeframe for ending negotiations.
“We will be sitting together and seeing how the possibilities of working with everybody to get as close as possible to a unified text,” said Kawar.
The PA’s envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told AFP on Monday that he expected the new resolution to be presented by the middle of the month, with a vote to quickly follow.
“The French are moving more and more, trying to bring all the European colleagues together, and I think that eventually they will succeed,” he said.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament last week that a final settlement should be reached within two years.
It remains unclear whether the United States, which has vetoed UN resolutions seen as critical of Israel, would support a text to re-start the peace process.
Jordan’s push at the United Nations came as France’s National Assembly voted in favor of recognizing Palestine in a non-binding measure similar to those adopted in Britain, Spain and Ireland.
Denmark is also planning to hold a vote while Sweden has taken the additional step of offering recognition of Palestine.
