President Barack Obama was to meet Mahmud Abbas this night in a bid to cut the road on Palestine for seeking a Palestinian state

US President Barack Obama was to meet Mahmud Abbas Wednesday in a bid to cut the road for seeking a Palestinian state as diplomats scrambled behind the scenes to convince the Palestinian leader to drop his bid for UN membership of a Palestinian state.
  
Both the United States and the Europeans appeared to be working to buy more time to avert the looming clash, with Abbas determined to press ahead with plans to submit a formal application to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday.

MEETINGS AHEAD OF VOTE

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Tuesday with Abbas, was expected to unveil a breakthrough during his speech to the opening of the UN assembly in Wednesday, French sources told AFP.

Lebanon President Michel Suleiman, serving as the leader of the rotating head of the Council, also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York on Tuesday night. They both discussed the preparations being made to present Palestine’s application for full membership to the UN on Friday.

Obama was to meet Abbas on Wednesday, just hours after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US official said. "The president will be able to say, very directly, why he believes that an action at the United Nations is not a way to achieve a Palestinian state," national security advisor Ben Rhodes said.
 
"President Abbas has indicated his intent to go to the Security Council. President Obama has been clear that we do not believe that that will lead to a Palestinian state. "The second point though, what we're focused on, is having a basis for direct negotiations to achieve a Palestinian state," he added.
  
Obama has already called for negotiations to resume using the 1967 lines -- encompassing the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip -- as a starting point for the contours of an eventual Palestinian state.  

NO WARM WELCOME FOR BIBI

Consequently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off yesterday for New York to attend the UN General Assembly. Netanyahu is to meet today with Obama after the latter addresses the General Assembly. Netanyahu is to address the GA Friday, a short time after Mahmoud Abbas delivers his speech.

A few hours before leaving for Ben-Gurion International Airport, Netanyahu organized a support meeting of Likud lawmakers, to which Likud mayors were also invited. "I know the reception here is much warmer than the one I'll receive at the UN General Assembly, and precisely for that reason I think it's important to go there and present our truth," Netanyahu told the group.