PM Tusk – 'Weak Israel not an option'

Donald Tusk; photo - PAP/Radek Pietruszka

“If the content of the resolution can be negotiated so that it moves forward the Palestinian cause but at the same time is not a threat to Israel […] then we will be ready to vote for it,” Tusk said.

President Bronislaw Komorowski is to travel to New York to take part in the debate at the General Assembly on recognition at the UN of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority says it will make a formal application to be admitted to the UN as an independent state based on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, this week.

The move is strongly opposed by Israel and the US and EU are working to avoid a vote at the UN General and Security Councils.

The US has said that it will accept only a joint agreement between Israel and Palestine and it will not support any move without the consent of the Israeli government.

Palestinian president Mahmood Abbas has vowed, however, not to bend to foreign pressure and said his people will not be “bought off” from dropping the demand.

Amid frantic negotiations behind the scenes in New York this week, some European states are attempting to find a compromise. One idea is to offer the Palestinians “observer status” at the UN, only, without the full recognition of statehood.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a meeting with President Abbas in New York to resume peace talks.

But Nabil Shaath, a senior advisor to Abbas, said on Monday after talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that Palestine would go ahead and submit a formal letter requesting recognition of statehood before the Palestinian president's address to the General Assembly on Friday. (pg)