UK to back upgrading Palestinian UN status Britain is considering backing the Palestinian bid to upgrade their status at the UN General Assembly this week in an attempt to give a political boost to Mahmoud Abbas, the embattled president of the Palestinian Authority. After a weekend of intense diplomacy, Britain has told Mr Abbas, the PA president, that it is prepared to back his resolution, which aims to give the Palestinians the status of a non-member "observer state" at the UN. Until now the UK, like the US, has been lukewarm about Mr Abbas's drive to put a vote to the UN General Assembly. Britain has argued that a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood can come about only at the end of successful negotiation on a two-state solution. However, British officials have told the Financial Times the UK will now give its support to Mr Abbas but they are looking for assurances in three areas. The first is that the Palestinians will not use the resolution to join the International Criminal Court or UN agencies. Israel has long feared that such an application, if successful, could see the ICC taking action against it over alleged war crimes. Palestinians have said that joining the ICC is not a priority but have insisted until now that they will not formally rule out going to the international court. London is also looking for reassurance that if the resolution is passed, it will not be used by the Palestinians as the basis for a bid in front of the UN Security Council for full Palestinian membership of the global body. The UK says it also wants Mr Abbas to make a renewed commitment to return to negotiations with Israel without preconditions. Mr Abbas has said repeatedly that he wants to use the UN upgrade to kick-start peace negotiations with Israel, but he is likely to balk at making a formal commitment to hold talks while Israel continues to expand its settlements in the occupied West Bank. William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, was expected to speak to Mr Abbas by telephone on Monday evening. The UK believes Hamas's recent conflict with Israel over Gaza have undermined Mr Abbas and the PA in the West Bank. "We want to get behind the Palestinian moderates and strengthen their hand," said a UK official. Abbas needs support and we recognise that. A British decision to support the Palestinian resolution is certain to disappoint Israel, which was hoping to persuade most of its close allies in Europe and North America to vote against the upgrade or, at the very least, abstain. However, Israel itself made clear that, contrary to earlier warnings, it will not take any measures against the Palestinian Authority as a result of this week's vote. Israeli politicians had originally threatened to crack down on Mr Abbas should he press ahead with his UN move, suggesting that Israel could again halt financial transfers to the PA or accelerate settlement building in the West Bank. But an Israeli official said on Monday that no such steps were planned for the immediate aftermath of the UN vote: "The resolution is no game-changer so there is no need to respond to it as such," he said. Since the general assembly resolution in itself carries no practical meaning and is purely a matter of procedure we will wait and see where the Palestinians want to take this before we decide on any eventual measure. The official added, however, that Israel would take measures against the PA should Mr Abbas follow up on the UN general assembly vote by seeking to join the International Criminal Court or becoming a full member of smaller UN agencies. The British move comes amid intensifying diplomatic efforts by Israel and the Palestinians to sway wavering countries ahead of the vote in the UN general assembly on Thursday. Both sides agree that the Palestinians will win an overwhelming majority in the chamber, thanks to their strong support from countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Arab world. But there is still a fierce struggle over the votes of leading European countries, whose support for a Palestinian upgrade would send a potentially menacing political signal to Israel. We continue to try to dissuade the Palestinians from taking this action. We think it's going to be complicating and potentially a step backwards in terms of the larger goal, which is a negotiated solution," Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said on Monday.