Palestinian officials are pushing for a U.N. Security Council vote on Wednesday on a proposed resolution that would set a November 2016 deadline for ending the 47-year-long Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The move was announced late Sunday by the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, reported The Guardian.
Jordan circulated the draft resolution to the 15-member U.N. Security Council, and Palestinian officials said on Monday they would submit it in the next few days.
A separate proposal is in the works from France, Britain and Germany that aims to establish a less definitive timetable.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Rome on Monday to discuss the various proposals for a Palestinian state, Reuters reported.
Before leaving for Rome to meet with Kerry, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel "will not accept attempts to dictate unilateral, time-bound moves to us. I will say these things in the clearest manner. Even if there are dictates, we will stand up to them firmly."
Israel also said it hoped the U.S. would veto any U.N. resolution attempting to establish a timeframe for its withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
"The American government has backed our policy for 47 years that any solution between us and the Palestinians will be done through negotiations," Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting, according to Bloomberg.
U.S. officials indicated that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry did not consider either draft to be acceptable and said it was too early to establish a concrete a position, reported The Associated Press.
Reuters reported one senior U.S. State Department official saying, "These things are all very much in flux, it's not as if we're being asked to take a position on any particular Security Council resolution right now. It would be premature for us to discuss documents that are of uncertain status right now."
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told Voice of Palestine radio yesterday , "We are in a confrontation now with the U.S. because it doesn't support our U.N. Security Council move," reported Bloomberg. "The U.S. wants us to postpone this move until after the Israeli elections," al-Malki said, adding that there is "direct American pressure on the financial and political level."
Kerry will travel to Paris late Monday to talk with European counterparts, and will then travel to London to meet Palestinian negotiator Erekat along with a delegation from the Arab Leagues, who is expected to ask the U.S. to not use its veto power to block the proposals.
