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Backburner Or Frontburner? Views Vary On Palestinian Strategy At UN

The Associated Press says Palestinians remain "undeterred in U.N. statehood bid" despite a U.S. plan to use its Security Council veto to block a move by Palestinian leaders for U.N. membership as a state.

But The Guardian says Palestinians are "ready to put statehood on backburner in favor of peace talks." It reports that "senior Palestinian sources" say "Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, ... told Barack Obama at a meeting on Wednesday evening that he would agree to delaying a security council vote by several weeks, although the Palestinians are maintaining the line in public that any delays will be 'procedural not political.' "

As Alan Greenblatt wrote for us Wednesday, "backstage negotations" are obviously underway.

What does seem clear is that on Friday, Palestinian officials will go ahead and submit the U.N. membership application. And that we'll have to wait and see what happens then.

Earlier today on Morning Edition, NPR's Michele Kelemen walked listeners through the latest news on this diplomatic drama. She says that "European diplomats are sounding confident" that Israelis and Palestinians are "showing more flexibility and readiness for peace talks."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.