U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke Tuesday on Telephone with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas ahead of a U.N. meeting over the Palestinians' bid for U.N. membership, State Department officials said. Clinton urged Abbas “to work hard with us to avoid a negative scenario in New York at the end of the month,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, in reference to the expected application for a Palestinian state on September 20 before the U.N. General Assembly. Abbas will Wednesday meet with U.S. Middle East envoy David Hale, and Clinton called on the Palestinian leadership to “hear him with open ears” as Washington hopes to avert a potentially bitter U.N. meeting. “We are going to continue to work right up until the U.N. General Assembly, if necessary, to get all parties back to the table, and we will continue to work afterwards,” Nuland said of U.S. efforts. Direct talks between Israel and Palestinians came to a halt shortly after they were relaunched in Washington last September due to Israel's continued building of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
