Jerusalem: Amid moves by Palestine to ask the UN Security Council to recognise an independent Palestinian state without Israeli consent, US senators on Monday said Washington would veto a Palestinian declaration of statehood in the world body.
"It would be D.O.A. - dead on arrival," Democratic Party Senator Ted Kaufman (DE) told a news conference in Jerusalem. "It`s a waste of time."
Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, said "an essentially unilateral" declaration of statehood was the one thing that would not move the stalled peace process forward.
"I hope and presume that the United States would veto such a move if it ever came to the Security Council," Lieberman said.
The only way to end the Middle East conflict was an agreement reached through bilateral negotiations, he added.
The Palestinians should "give the new government of Israel an opportunity at the negotiating table", the Jewish senator stressed.
US Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, said that a "unilateral" declaration by the Palestinians "would take a desperate situation and make it more chaotic".
"Now is the time for the Arab leadership of this world to step forward and urge the president of the Palestinian Authority to sit down with this new government and see where it goes," Graham said.
Bureau Report
