Palestinian sources said that they would formulate a draft resolution to condemn the settlements in the UN Security Council by the end of the month and that they intended to bring it before the Security Council by the end of the year. They said that Arab ambassadors at the UN had already begun discussing a first draft with representatives of the member states of the Security Council. It was further decided in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian leadership, that a request to grant the Palestinians the status of a UN member state would be made in the Security Council. The request will be put to a vote in the General Assembly should the bid fail.
US Consul General in Jerusalem Donald Blome recently told a Palestinian newspaper that the US would review the language of the request prior to deciding how to proceed, changing Washington’s tone from its previous stance, in which it assertively demands negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel as the only path to establishing a Palestinian state.