LONDON - Britain said Wednesday it will abstain on a vote for upgraded Palestinian diplomatic status at the United Nations unless the Palestinians commit to an unconditional return to talks with Israel.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would only support Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Thursday’s vote at UN headquarters if Abbas agreed to negotiations over a lasting two-state deal with Israel.
To secure Britain’s vote, Hague said the Palestinians would also have to drop their pursuit of International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank and confirm that the UN resolution would not reply retrospectively.
“Up until the time of the vote itself, we will remain open to voting in favour of the resolution if we see public assurances by the Palestinians on these points,” Hague told parliament. “However, in the absence of these assurances the United Kingdom would abstain on the vote.”
He added that the guarantees sought by Britain would “not be difficult to make” and could be made either in the text of the Palestinian resolution, or in accompanying statements.
There was no question of Britain voting against the resolution, Hague said.
Abbas is to submit a formal application to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday to obtain an upgraded role from an observer entity to that of a non-member observer state, the same position held by the Vatican. The Palestinians are poised to gain the backing of a majority of the General Assembly’s 193 member states, but face strong opposition from the United States and Israel.
Minutes after Hague’s statement, Germany said it would not vote in favour of the resolution, but a growing number of its European neighbours including France, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland have pledged to back Abbas.
If the request is approved, it will give the Palestinians access to a range of UN agencies and also potentially to the ICC, where they could level allegations of war crimes against Israel.
Hague said it was essential that the Palestinians provide the guarantees sought by Britain in order to assure the international community that they are serious about returning to bilateral negotiations with Israel.
“For us to support a resolution at the UN it is important that the risks to the peace process are addressed,” he told lawmakers.
“There has been a dangerous impasse in the peace process over the last two years,” he added, calling on the United States to do everything in its power to revive negotiations.
He called on Israel to be ready to re-enter talks, and urged the Jewish state to “avoid reacting in a way that damages the peace process” should the Palestinians win Thursday’s vote.
Israeli officials fear that the Palestinians could use their new-found status to sue them for war crimes at the ICC, and a senior Palestinian official on Wednesday confirmed that they had come under “intensive” world pressure to commit that they would not take such a step.
“We have not succumbed to pressure, we did not give any commitment,” Hanan Ashrawi told reporters in Ramallah, saying most of the pressure had come from Britain.
“We haven’t decided that tomorrow we are going to be recognised as a state and the day after, we are going to the International Criminal Court.”
But she said she hoped the threat alone would prove to be “a positive inducement for corrective action” in Israel’s stance vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
This week, Abbas also received a rare show of support from the rival Palestinian nationalist movement, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
The Islamist movement had publicly opposed the bid, but on Monday, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal phoned Abbas to tell him that the faction “welcomes the step of going to the United Nations for state observer status.”
Israel is already weighing countermeasures in response to the UN bid, including freezing the transfer of tax and tariff funds it collects on their behalf.
Some ministers warned they could declare the 1993 Oslo peace accords void, and a foreign ministry policy paper even suggested “toppling” Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.
But a ministry spokeswoman on Tuesday said Israel would most likely not take any punitive measures, unless the Palestinians used the upgrade “as a platform for confrontation”.
“Israel’s reaction to the Palestinian move depends on what they choose to do.. If they use this resolution as a platform for confrontation, we will have to act accordingly,” said Ilana Stein in reference to any move at the ICC.
Washington has repeatedly urged Abbas to drop the request, warning he risks losing around $200 million in development aid earmarked for the Palestinian Authority which is currently blocked in the US Congress.
It could also affect American financial aid to the United Nations under terms of a US law which prohibits funding international bodies that recognise a Palestinian state.