The Palestinian Authority will push ahead with its bid to get United Nations statehood recognition though it won’t press for an immediate vote as support in the Security Council appeared to be below the needed threshold. 
 
 The Palestinians have said at least eight of the council’s members -- Russia, China, Gabon, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon and India -- will back them. The U.S. veto pledge notwithstanding, that still leaves the Palestinians one vote short of the nine needed for membership. 
 
 The U.S. and Israel have leaned on council members favoring the statehood initiative to abstain from voting, leaving the Palestinians fighting to retain support. Allowing the UN’s administrative process to delay the consideration in the 15- member body will permit the Palestinians to save face and buy diplomats time to look for an alternative that restarts peace talks. 
 
 “We will give some time to the Security Council to consider first our full membership request before heading to the General Assembly,” Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told reporters yesterday. “If we fail, we will keep knocking on the door. We do not have a time limit.” 
 
 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will address the UN General Assembly tomorrow and formally submit his letter of application for statehood recognition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who will then pass it on to Lebanon, which presides this month over the Security Council. It’s the only Arab country in the decision-making body and supports the bid. 
 
 ‘Going Forward’ 
 
 “We are going forward with our application for a full state,” Mohammad Shtayyeh, a senior member of Abbas’ Fatah party who is on the special committee that prepared the UN bid, told Bloomberg Television. 
 
 About 500 people waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of statehood today, parading past the grave of Palestine Liberation Organization founder Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. 
 
 “We will not surrender,” said 26-year-old Niveen Abuez. “We will continue our path to achieve our basic rights.” 
 
 Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, said that Abbas has “worked hard to manage expectations and I think people will give him another two months, maybe longer.” 
 
 “They weren’t really expecting him to come back home tomorrow with a state,” he said. 
 
 In what U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to as “extremely intense” diplomacy, Israel and the U.S. made headway in eroding support for the membership initiative even among countries the Palestinians had been counting on. 
 
 Nigerian Vote 
 
 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met in New York with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and convinced him to stay neutral in a possible vote on Palestinian statehood, according to a statement released by his office. 
 
 Nigeria is among the nine nations on the Security Council that have recognized a Palestinian state. The others are Brazil, Russia, China, India, Lebanon, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Gabon. 
 
 Some countries have seldom received so much attention. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the smallest country on the council. Its UN envoy is a 36-year-old Croat, who says he’s been contacted by Israel, the Palestinians and the U.S. 
 
 Delay Process 
 
 Once a membership application has been lodged, the Security Council can delay the process. For South Sudan, it took three days to make the African country the UN’s 193rd member while Jordan had to wait five years. In the case of the Palestinians, an admissions committee representing all 15 council members might be set up to deliberate on the matter for days, weeks or even months. 
 
 U.S. President Barack Obama underlined yesterday that his position had not budged when he told the gathering of world leaders that “peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN.” There was little in his words to encourage Palestinians or sway Abbas to change course. 
 
 “It didn’t really take us forward to anywhere,” said Shtayyeh in a telephone interview. “The negotiations themselves are in a crisis. We took this initiative to change the status quo.” 
 
 Another option open to the Palestinians would be to pursue an upgraded status at the General Assembly, from “entity” to “non-member state,” such as the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church, based in the Vatican. That could enable them to sign international treaties and have cases heard in the International Criminal Court. 
 
 Win Endorsement 
 
 Such a course could win the endorsement of some Europeans in the council, such as France and Britain, which are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, yet want to see greater recognition accompanied with a return to the negotiating table. 
 
 French President Nicolas Sarkozy, addressing the General Assembly yesterday, supported the “intermediate step” of observer-state status. He also proposed a one-year timetable for resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to lead to a full peace accord. Talks should begin within a month without preconditions, he said. 
 
 Peace negotiations collapsed last year following Netanyahu’s decision not to extend a 10-month partial freeze on construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Abbas has said he won’t resume talks while building continues. Netanyahu, who hasn’t offered to resume the freeze in settlement building, has repeatedly said that Abbas should restart direct talks. 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in United Nations at fjackson@bloomberg.net; Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net ||||| The Palestinians will ask the Security Council next week to accept them as a full member of the United Nations, the Palestinian foreign minister said Thursday, a move that would defy Washington's threat to veto the statehood bid. 
 
 Tailor Abu Khatab sews Palestinian flags as part of the campaign promoting the Palestinians' bid for statehood, at his workshop in the West Bank city of Nablus,Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011.(AP Photo/Nasser... (Associated Press) 
 
 Tailor Abu Khatab sews Palestinian flags as part of the campaign promoting the Palestinians' bid for statehood, at his workshop in the West Bank city of Nablus, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Nasser... (Associated Press) 
 
 Cups designed as part of the campaign promoting the Palestinians' bid for statehood are displayed in a souvenirs shop in Gaza City, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set... (Associated Press) 
 
 The remarks by Riad Malki came just ahead of the arrival in the West Bank of a senior U.S. diplomatic team that was in the region in a last-ditch effort to persuade the Palestinians to drop the U.N. bid. Although Malki did not close the door on compromise, his comments signaled the chances of breakthrough were slim. 
 
 With a diplomatic showdown looming, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that he would travel to the U.N. next week to lead the opposition to the Palestinian initiative. 
 
 The emerging scenario would constitute a blow to U.S. diplomacy by forcing Washington to veto a proposal whose outcome _ a Palestinian state _ in principle is supported by most of the world, including the White House and many in Israel as well. 
 
 However, both the U.S. and Israel say a Palestinian state can be established only through negotiations. 
 
 It could also drag out the maneuver at the United Nations for months. 
 
 The process would have to play out in the Security Council before the Palestinians turn to the General Assembly, where they are likely to find the needed majority for a lesser form of recognition as a "nonmember observer state." 
 
 Malki said the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will personally submit the Palestinian request for membership to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after addressing the General Assembly on the afternoon of Sept. 23. In the meantime, he said the Palestinians would listen to suggested alternatives. 
 
 "We will see if anyone carries with him or her any credible offer that will allow us to look into it seriously and to be discussed in the Palestinian leadership. Otherwise, on the 23rd at 12:30, the president will submit the application," Malki told foreign journalists in Ramallah. 
 
 The Palestinians say they are turning to the U.N. in frustration after years of failed peace talks. While a U.N. vote will not change the situation on the ground, the Palestinians believe it will improve their position if peace talks resume. 
 
 "We are going to the United Nations because we want really to strengthen the chances for the resumption of negotiations," Malki said. 
 
 The U.S. envoys, David Hale and Dennis Ross, are the latest in a string of senior diplomats who are trying to get the Palestinians to cancel their U.N. bid and instead resume negotiations with Israel. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and international Mideast envoy Tony Blair have also held talks with the Palestinians in recent days. 
 
 A meeting with Blair late Wednesday, Malki said, "did not produce anything new." 
 
 The last round of Israel-Palestinian talks broke down a year ago, just weeks after their launch, in a dispute over Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war for their future state. 
 
 The Palestinians say they will not return to the table unless Israel freezes settlement construction and accepts its 1967 boundaries as the basis for a final agreement. Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Mideast war. 
 
 Malki would not give specifics on what it would take to get the Palestinians to abandon their U.N. bid, saying only it would require a "firm base with clear terms of reference, a clear timetable and with a clear end game." 
 
 U.S. officials in Washington say the proposed formula would endorse parameters laid out in a speech by President Barack Obama last May, when he said the 1967 lines should be the basis of an agreement. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said other details would include a three-month settlement moratorium and six-month timetable for talks. 
 
 The U.S. has already said it will use its veto in the Security Council, the powerful 15-member body that must approve U.N. membership. 
 
 There had been some expectation that the Palestinians would go straight to the General Assembly. Approval of a Palestinian resolution is guaranteed in the 193-nation body, which is dominated by developing countries sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. 
 
 But Malki said Thursday the Palestinians remain focused on the Security Council, setting the stage for a direct confrontation with the Americans. 
 
 Netanyahu, meanwhile, announced he would lead his government's delegation to the annual gathering in New York. Acknowledging the General Assembly is not "particularly sympathetic to Israel," he said it was important to go and "lay things out the way they are." 
 
 Netanyahu said he would stress his country's security needs, particularly in light of the dramatic changes sweeping through the Arab world. 
 
 "I will tell the truth, the simple truth, and the truth is Israel wants peace," Netanyahu said. "We know that this peace is conditioned on recognition and security, and I think these needs are only sharpened against the background of the events we see around us."
– Barring some kind of last-minute diplomatic magic trick, Mahmoud Abbas will ask the UN Security Council for membership next week, the Palestinian foreign minister said today—even as US diplomats traveled to the West Bank for last-ditch negotiating efforts. “We will see if anyone carries … any credible offer,” he said, according to the AP. “Otherwise, on the 23rd the president will submit the application.” Benjamin Netanyahu today announced that he’d lead Israel’s UN delegation to oppose the move. The gambit puts the US in the uncomfortable position of vetoing one of its stated policy objectives. Most other countries support Palestinian statehood, so Abbas is at least likely to win “non-member observer state” status from the General Assembly. None of this will change realities on the ground, but it’s energized Palestinians, the New York Times reports, even if many fear Israeli reprisals. “We have to do it,” one said. “The consequences cannot be worse than losing all of Palestine.”