Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will go ahead to request full membership in the United Nations on Friday, a senior Palestinian politician said, despite appeals not to from U.S. President Obama.
"Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN," Obama said on Wednesday in an address to the UN General Assembly.
He later told Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Wednesday he would veto any Palestinian bid for UN membership.
But Abbas vowed to press ahead and said he would submit a written application to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday.
"Our plans have not changed," Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Voice of Palestine radio.
"We would have to oppose any action at the UN Security Council including, if necessary, vetoing," White House national security council spokesman Ben Rhodes said after Obama met Abbas in New York on Wednesday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned a U.S. veto could trigger wider violence in the region and urged the UN to grant the Palestinians observer state status before reaching a "definitive agreement" in a year's time.
