Abbas defiant over UN move

PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas has suggested time has run out for the international community to talk him out of seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state.

Abbas spoke yesterday en route to the United Nations, where he is to seek recognition of a state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as Gaza and east Jerusalem.

The US and Israel oppose Abbas’s bid, saying a state can only be established through negotiations. Abbas insists talks must be based on the pre-1967 war frontiers and a halt of Israeli settlement construction.