Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told Arab leaders he may seek US recognition for a Palestinian state taking in all of the West Bank should peace talks with Israel stay stalled, an aide said on Saturday.
The idea, raised during Arab League deliberations in Libya on Friday, would place new pressure on Israel to extend a freeze on construction of Jewish colonies in the occupied territory, without which Abbas has said peace negotiations cannot continue.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "alternatives" to the face-to-face talks launched five weeks ago had been discussed, among them "ask[ing] the United States to recognise the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders".
"[Another] is to study the possibility of going to the (UN) Security Council to get a resolution that calls upon member states to recognise the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders," he told Reuters by telephone from the Libyan town of Sirte.
Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a partial 10-month freeze on colony construction last November in what he called a goodwill gesture to get negotiations started.
But Netanyahu, whose coalition government includes pro-colonist parties, has resisted international pressure to extend the moratorium past its scheduled expiry last month.
Past proposals for Palestinian statehood to be declared without Israeli consent have been received coolly by the United States and other world powers, who want a negotiated solution though they regard the colonies as illegitimate.
The Palestinians say colonies would deny them a viable state, which they envisage having occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.
"I cannot specify all the alternatives that were presented by President Abbas [to the Arab League], but the president will keep working with the American administration to achieve a full cessation of [colony] activities in order to restart talks," Erekat said.
