Obama urges Europe not to support Palestine�s U.N. statehood bid

International Business Times (Link) (May 26, 2011)

The US is worried that a unilateral support would isolate Israel, as British Prime Minister David Cameron is vague about the Palestine�s statehood bid.

President Barack Obama launched a campaign to convince the European leaders not to bid for a separate Palestinian state. But the only response he got from Cameron was noncommittal.

After a meeting on Wednesday with Obama, Cameron said the time was not yet right for to decide on the Palestinian bid for the United Nations� recognition.

Palestinian Authority is expected to make the appeal at the U.N. General Assembly in September.

However, Cameron said the world leaders should press Israelis and Palestinians to start the negotiations which they had abandoned last September, so that, �the vital process� will start moving.

US is concerned that if the European leaders decide to support the Palestinian bid for recognition, it would isolate Israel and embarrass its most powerful ally, the United States.

Obama is making this issue his top priority throughout his four-country tour, which includes a stop in Deauville, France, to meet with other leaders of the Group of 8 (G8).

Obama said that a Palestinian state can be created through negotiations, but that will require a �compromise from each side.� He refuted Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas�s appeal by saying the effort to seek U.N. recognition was �a mistake.�

Cameron merely praised Obama�s new principles for peace, which include Israel�s 1967 borders as a start for territorial negotiations, but he declined to say anything further.

Israel has been warned by Britain that they could support the Palestinian bid for recognition.

Most European nations have not committed themselves on the U.N. vote. French and Spanish governments have suggested a leaning towards recognition of the state of Palestine, while Germany and Italy are still hesitant. �