Vote may be delayed to avoid veto

United Nations: Diplomats are racing to nail down a plan to deflect the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, crafting a face-saving formula that could lessen the immediate prospect of a Security Council veto, which the Obama administration desperately sought to avoid.

Under the plan, the council decision on the application for recognition, which Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to make tomorrow, would be put off indefinitely.

That would buy time for the US to try to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and would keep $600 million (Dh2,203 million) a year in US aid and other global assistance flowing to the Palestinians.

Congress had threatened to cut the US aid. Diplomats said Abbas, who was scheduled to meet yesterday with President Obama, had signed off on the plan.

Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator and ally of Abbas who is in New York for the UN General Assembly session, said Palestinian officials are willing "to accept some delay, of the kind you would have under normal United Nations procedures."

— Los Angeles Times