Jordan hopes for December vote on a UN Palestinian resolution
As Britain, France and Germany work on their own draft resolution, Jordanian ambassador says Amman wants to work on a unified text with other member states.
Jordan circulated a Palestinian-drafted resolution to the 15-member council last month calling for Israeli presence in territory Palestinians want for their future state to end by November 2016. Some Western council diplomats described the text as "unbalanced."
France, Britain and Germany are also drafting a resolution, which French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said would propose concluding peace talks in two years. Other parameters for ending the conflict would also be set, diplomats said.
"We will be sitting together and seeing ... the possibilities of working with everybody to get as close as possible to a unified text that will be for the interests of everybody," said Jordan's UN Ambassador Dina Kawar.
"We're going to try to make it before Christmas. If not, it will be in January," Kawar told reporters. "We really want to get everybody on board and that's our intention."
The Palestinian draft is unlikely to gain the support of veto-wielding council member the United States, a key ally of Israel. It is not clear whether Washington will be prepared to engage in formal negotiations on the Palestinian or European texts or if the United States will produce its own proposal.
'No rush' to adopt resolution
The Palestinians, backed by the Arab League, circulated a draft resolution at the end of September that called for ending the Israeli occupation by November 2016.
The text however ran into opposition from the United States and other members of the council, opening the way for the Europeans to try to present an alternative draft.
Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour said Monday the text being shepherded by France is expected to lay out a timeframe for negotiations with Israel on a final peace deal and possibly a second deadline for Palestinian statehood.
"The French are moving more and more, trying to bring all the European colleagues together, and I think that eventually they will succeed," Mansour told AFP.
The French-led European initiative is expected to be discussed in Brussels on Tuesday when US Secretary of State John Kerry holds talks with European ministers during a NATO meeting.
The position of the United States, which has repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions seen as pressuring Israel, will be crucial in deciding if the latest push at the United Nations stands a chance.
French Foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said on Tuesday there was "no rush" to adopt a resolution.
"There is diplomatic work that is ongoing and intense talks in New York. We must relaunch the peace process, and the objective is to find the best way to do that," Nadal said.
French lawmakers on Tuesday urged their government to recognize Palestine, a move that will not immediately affect France's diplomatic stance but demonstrates growing European impatience with a stalled process.
It comes after Sweden became the biggest Western European country to recognize Palestine, and parliaments in Spain, Britain and Ireland voted to back non-binding resolutions favoring recognition.
Palestinians seek statehood in the West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as their capital - lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel accepts the "two-state solution" of an independent and democratic Palestinian state alongside Israel, but has not accepted the 1967 borders as the basis for final negotiations, citing security and other concerns.
AFP contributed to this report.
