Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said that the United States and France were coordinating a United Nations Security Council resolution that would put a time limit on the establishment of a Palestinian state. Hamdallah, who is the prime minister of the Fatah-Hamas Palestinian unity government, made the claim in an interview with Lally Weymouth of The Washington Post that was published Sunday.

There is the French initiative now, in coordination with the United States, and they talk about a time limit. This U.N. resolution can be issued which would set a time to end the occupation and establish a state along the ’67 borders. If this is issued, I’m sure we can go back to negotiations.

Whether it is through the French initiative, or any other, we [want to] get a guarantee for a time limit for the Israeli withdrawal and the establishment of the state and a freeze of settlement activities.

Later on in the interview, Hamdallah referred to having “certain assurances” that the U.S. will back the French initiative and that “we hear” that the U.S. is cooperating with France. Hamdallah repeatedly evaded answers from Weymouth on how he could say that he supported negotiations if the Palestinians were asking for statehood unilaterally declared via a Security Council resolution.

Palestinian efforts to seek statehood unilaterally contrasts with the premise of the peace process for the last twenty years—that negotiations are the only productive way forward. This strategy was outlined in a 2011 New York Times op-ed written by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who wrote that he intended to achieve statehood through international institutions.

Palestine’s admission to the United Nations would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one. It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.

Last year, American-sponsored peace talks fell apart when Abbas refused to accept a framework agreement that had been formulated by the United States and that had been accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After scuttling the peace talks, Abbas signed onto 15 international conventions, 11 of which the PA was in immediate violation of. This was followed by the PA and Hamas agreeing to a unity government. Hamdallah himself acknowledged last year that the PA was “not in control” of Hamas and was thus powerless to live up to the agreements  it had signed.

Last year, the State Department denied a Palestinian claim that the U.S. had invited Hamdallah to visit after the PA and Hamas agreed to a unity government.

[Photo: Minister-president Rutte / Flickr ]