WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is calling the Palestinian push for recognition by the world body “an unwise and diversionary gambit.”
Susan Rice says “there is no shortcut to statehood” for the Palestinians and that President Mahmoud Abbas should back away from his push for recognition by the U.N.
Rice acknowledges in an interview on CBS’s “The Early Show” that Abbas will likely to press his case, but says he won’t get enough votes to succeed.
Rice says Israel and the Palestinians must negotiate, arguing that lingering differences exist between the two sides over security, borders, the capital city and the Palestinian refugees.
And she says the Obama administration is concerned about a “great gap between the expectations of the Palestinian people and the reality” of the situation.
