Palestinian leaders vote to go for UN recognition (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The West Bank Palestinian leadership on Sunday formally decided to press ahead with efforts in September to win U.N. recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in what could be a blow to efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The leadership, made up of the Palestine Liberation Organization's decision-making body and officials of the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in the West Bank, said in a statement that the goal was to bring a state of Palestine into the family of nations of the world.

It approved the approach in principle, according to the statement, without adding operative steps about how to follow on from recognition.

The idea of asking the U.N. General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state inside the cease-fire lines that held until the 1967 Mideast War is a reflection of Palestinian frustration with stalemated peace talks with Israel.

In recent weeks, however, Palestinian leaders have been giving signs of backing away from the initiative and toward softening their position over the renewal of peace negotiations, as both the U.N. initiative and their drive to set up a unity government with the rival Hamas in Gaza have foundered.

Some Palestinians believe that contrary to the notion that U.N. recognition would stymie peace talks, such world status would force Israel to make concessions when negotiations resume.

Recognition of a Palestinian state by the U.N. General Assembly would carry considerable diplomatic weight but would not carry legal clout. Only the U.N. Security Council can add a nation to the world body, and the U.S. government has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the move, while stopping short of saying it would veto such a resolution.

Israel has denounced the Palestinian U.N. initiative, charging that it torpedoes efforts to reach a negotiated solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

President Barack Obama has offered a formula under which a Palestinian state would be set up with borders based on the pre-1967 war cease-fire lines that delineate the West Bank, with agreed upon swaps of territory between the two sides. Previous Israeli governments have agreed to the concept, but that did not result in a peace accord.

The current Israeli leadership, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has reacted coolly to the Obama proposal. Netanyahu has rejected an Israeli withdrawal from all of the West Bank and wants to retain Israeli control of east Jerusalem, claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. Israel pulled out of Gaza unilaterally in 2005.

Palestinians have been insisting that peace negotiations can be resumed only if Israel stops all construction in its West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, also considered settlements by the Palestinians and much of the world.

That would go well beyond a 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in the West Bank that Netanyahu imposed as an incentive to restart the talks. The negotiations resumed nine months later, last September, but were halted when the moratorium ended and was not renewed.

Now Israel rejects preconditions for peace talks and says that all issues, including the future of the settlements, should be on the negotiating table.

The Palestinians would be assured of a comfortable majority in favor of recognition of their state at the General Assembly session in September, as about 100 nations have already recognized a Palestinian state in one form or another. A U.N. vote would boost Palestinian prestige and further isolate Israel, but the path from there to an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank, and from there to an actual independent Palestinian state, is difficult to chart.

The settlements in their already existing form are one of the main sticking points. About 300,000 Israelis live in more than 100 communities scattered across the territory. Israeli military posts and checkpoints dot the West Bank to protect them, limiting Palestinian access and freedom of movement.

The largest settlements are closest to the cease-fire line, virtual suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The smaller ones, in the heart of the West Bank, are home to some of the most strident Israeli nationalist and religious hard-liners who believe either that Israel must keep control of the West Bank for security reasons or that it is the biblical Land of Israel that belongs to the Jews — or both.

Even Netanyahu, who backed unbridled settlement activity for decades, has indicated in public that the settlements farthest from Israel proper would not be part of Israel in a peace deal, while the largest ones would be incorporated into the Jewish state. He has taken no steps toward implementing that idea, and if he did, it would cost him the support of most of his backers from hard-line and Orthodox Jewish parties, including his own Likud, and likely bring down his government.

Conflicting signals have been emanating from Ramallah, the seat of the West Bank government headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. While frustrated over the stalemate in contacts with Israel, officials close to Abbas have begun signaling that they would ease their demands for a settlement construction freeze in order to facilitate resumption of peace negotiations because of difficulties with the U.N, initiative. Not only the U.S., but also some European nations have expressed reservations, declaring that the way to Mideast peace is through negotiations, not unilateral steps at the U.N.

Also, Abbas' efforts to patch up a rift with Hamas have run aground. The Islamic group overran Gaza in 2007 and expelled forces loyal to Abbas. Several weeks ago the two sides, with Egyptian mediation, announced a framework for reconciliation that was to lead to a joint government, ending the split. Such a unified government would be key to a push for a state.

Since the announcement, however, no further agreements have been announced. The two sides have failed to agree on a prime minister, and there is no sign of progress toward integrating their security forces, as Hamas insists on maintaining control of Gaza even after a unity government takes office.

In another development Sunday, Israel started dismantling a section of its West Bank separation barrier near the town of Bilin, scene of weekly demonstrations against the barrier by Palestinian villagers as well as Israeli and international activists. Israel is moving the section closer to the cease-fire line, in accordance with an Israeli Supreme Court decision, returning much of the town's land to its farmers. Israel built the barrier to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out.

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Associated Press writer Mark Lavie in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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Libya rebel boss pushes for recognition

Washington (CNN) -- A top Libyan opposition leader was urging formal U.S. recognition at the White House on Friday, a day after the interim council secured strong support from Britain.

Mahmoud Jibril's meetings with top Obama administration officials came as the Italian foreign minister raised the possibility that embattled leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi has been injured.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he did not have any evidence as to Gadhafi's fate, but Monsignor Giovanni Martinelli, the Catholic archbishop of Tripoli, told him that Gadhafi was wounded, the Italian ANSA news agency reported. Martinelli said Gadhafi was most likely not in Tripoli anymore, Frattini said.

However, Libyan government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said Friday that Ghadafi was in "good health and high spirits" in Tripoli.

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Four rockets struck Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound Thursday and killed at least three people, according to a Libyan government official. The Libyan government took journalists near the site of the blast, from where smoke could be seen still rising from the compound.

NATO military spokesman Mike Bracken said NATO had struck a command and control center but did not know whether anyone was inside.

Libyan state television broadcast video late Wednesday that it said showed Gadhafi meeting with tribal elders in a Tripoli hotel, marking the strongman's first public appearance in nearly two weeks.

The camera panned from a television program bearing the date of May 11 to the group of more than a dozen men, including Gadhafi.

Gadhafi, wearing sunglasses and dark clothing, had not been seen on television since April 30, the same day a NATO airstrike hit the Tripoli compound reportedly housing him and one of his sons. Libyan officials said at the time that Saif al-Arab Gadhafi was killed but that his father had escaped.

In Washington, Jibril said he intended to clear up "misperceptions" about extreme elements in the opposition and ask the Obama administration for formal U.S. recognition of Libya's Transitional National Council.

"We need the recognition as the sole legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people," said Jibril, the interim prime minister of council, who was meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and national security adviser Tom Donilon.

In talks Thursday with the council's chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, British Prime Minister David Cameron invited the group to establish a formal office in London. Cameron said Britain would also boost its presence in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital.

The United States has not recognized the opposition formally, although it has provided aid. Italy and France have recognized the opposition group.

As the opposition sought greater support, the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands said it will unveil Monday the names of those who are "most responsible for crimes allegedly committed in Libya."

The names will be submitted to the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who has been seeking warrants for three individuals in crimes against humanity allegedly committed since February, when the Libyan uprising erupted.

Gadhafi has been firm in his attempt to retain power in Libya. Loyalist forces and rebel fighters, aided by NATO airstrikes, have been fighting each other for weeks.

The bloodshed continued Friday.

Libyan state television reported Friday that NATO airsrikes hit a guest house in the eastern oil town of al-Brega, killing 11 people and injuring about 45 others.

Ibrahim condemned the attack, calling NATO "barbaric" and inhumane" in its actions for striking attendees of a religious conference while they were asleep. He showed a video that showed the imams in prayer and then bodies being taken away.

"Now is this protection of civilians?" Ibrahim asked. "Is this legitimate under any Security Council resolution to kill people in their sleep?"

NATO's military office confirmed that NATO conducted an air strike in al-Brega earlier Friday but said the target was clearly identified as a command and control structure, which was being used by Gadhafi regime to coordinate attacks against the civilian population.

And Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman, denied that civilian casualties were caused by NATO strikes.

All civilians have left the al-Brega area, Bani said. The remaining population are pro-Gadhafi forces and have taken up positions in civilian neighborhoods, hiding equipment and ammunition, he said.

In the contested western city of Misrata, a doctor said rebels were able to maintain control of the airport and a civil defense base beyond the airport.

The doctor said that at least 10 people, including two babies, were killed and at least 20 were injured Friday in sporadic shelling.

A rebel spokesman, who asked to be identified only as Mohamed, also said rebels were controlling Misrata's airport and civil defense base, which are about 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the city center.

In Jibril's first official visit to Washington, the opposition leader is scheduled to meet Friday with Donilon as well as other senior administration officials and members of Congress.

Jibril said Thursday that the United States should turn over some of Libya's frozen assets to his group because "a human tragedy is in the making right now." He said Libyan rebels are facing a "big hurdle" in getting the U.S. government to free up some of the $30 billion-plus in frozen Libyan assets to help those suffering under Gadhafi's regime.

"Time is the crux of the matter, because having solved this problem in a matter of four or five weeks might be too late," Jibril told a group gathered at the Brookings Institution.

He said he wanted to clarify a misunderstanding about the council: that it was not a political organ but an administrative one that was managing the situation in Libya until the fall of Gadhafi's regime.

"The political question of who should rule Libya and how he or she should rule it, this is for the Libyan people to decide through a political democratic process based on constitutional grounds, based on an active civil society, based on equal rights and natural human rights for everybody," he said.

In March, Jibril met privately with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she was in Paris for a meeting with the Group of Eight foreign ministers. At the State Department on May 5, Clinton said, "Clearly on our agenda is looking for the most effective ways to deliver financial assistance and other means of supporting and helping the opposition."

CNN's Amir Ahmed contributed to this story.

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