WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Palestinians’ push for U.N. membership is not going anywhere for now, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday, arguing that they should resume peace talks with Israel quickly.

Clinton told Reuters many nations were making the case to the Palestinians that their formal letter delivered on September 23 seeking U.N. membership would not give them a state and that the only viable path was direct negotiations with Israel.

“It’s not going anywhere for the foreseeable future, and even if it were, you are not going to get a state through the U.N. It’s not going to happen,” Clinton said, describing what called “the right case” being made to the Palestinians.

“So you have done what you needed to do to signal your seriousness of purpose, now get back into negotiations where you can actually start talking about borders,” she added.

U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed a year ago after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month limited moratorium on construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has conditioned a return to negotiations on a settlement freeze and applied last month for full Palestinian membership of the United Nations, a move opposed by both the United States and Israel.

HOPE FOR TALKS BY END OF OCTOBER

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iran’s alleged ties to a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington will isolate Tehran, strengthen Gulf security alliances and spur stricter enforcement of sanctions against Iranian interests, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday.

Clinton said the U.S. announcement that it had foiled the plot demonstrated that Tehran was a “bad guy” and a threat to the world at large.

“What everybody is learning is that nobody is safe from the Iranians. They have their own logic, their own way of thinking about the world and their place in it and they’re vying with everybody for influence,” Clinton told Reuters in an interview.

“This case will, I think, reinforce the well-grounded suspicions of many countries about what they’re up to.”

Clinton spoke shortly after U.S. officials said they had foiled a plot by two men linked to the Iranian government to assassinate the envoy of Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s traditional rival for influence in the Gulf.

U.S. officials described the plan as conceived, sponsored and directed from Tehran and imposed sanctions on five men, including four members of an elite Iranian security force, they said were tied to the plot.

Iran, which is at odds with the United States and other western countries over its nuclear ambitions, rejected the U.S. accusation as a “prefabricated scenario.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The issue of whether and how to suggest that Israel should be a Jewish state ultimately sank diplomatic efforts to draft a substantive statement to revive peace talks, sources familiar with the matter said.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel and the Palestinians — and their effective proxies in the negotiations, the United States and Russia — remain too far apart on that issue and others.

The European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — known as the “Quartet” — have tried for months to draft “terms of reference” that might breathe life into peace talks that collapsed nearly a year ago.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration pushed hard to dissuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from seeking full U.N. membership, arguing that Palestine would become a state only through negotiations with Israel. Abbas rebuffed them and, on Friday, made a formal request.

The Quartet hoped to draft a statement with “terms of reference” to head off U.N. push by Abbas but when it became clear that was impossible, they chose to issue a statement on Friday designed to revive peace talks in spite of his request.

In a week of high-stakes diplomacy under the spotlight of the U.N. General Assembly last week, diplomats could not find a formula acceptable to both sides on the central issues: borders, Jewish settlements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

Instead, they issued a statement that focused on process: calling for preparatory talks in a month, substantive proposals from both sides on borders and security within three months and a peace deal by the end of 2012.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations on Friday to recognize a state for his people, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said only direct negotiations could deliver peace.

Abbas handed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter requesting full U.N. membership, which the Security Council will consider on Monday. The United States has vowed to use its veto if it comes to a vote.

“I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience can reject our application for a full membership in the United Nations and our admission as an independent state,” Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly, which gave him a standing ovation.

Trying to head off a clash in the Security Council, a quartet of Middle East mediators urged a return to peace talks within four weeks, “substantial progress” within six months and an agreement to be struck within a year.

The Quartet — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — asked Israel and the Palestinians to submit proposals on territory and security within three months.

Previous proposed timetables for negotiations, such as a one-year deadline set by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2007 and one by Obama a year ago, have run into the sand.

Abbas’ statehood ploy exposes waning U.S. influence in a region shaken by Arab revolts and shifting alliances that have pushed Israel, still militarily strong, deeper into isolation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – There appear to be three possible outcomes to the Palestinian plan on Friday to seek full U.N. membership: a miracle, a muddle, and a mess.

The miracle would be if diplomats dream up a document that may persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to talk peace after nearly a year of impasse and acrimony.

The muddle would be if the Palestinian letter requesting full membership simply sits in the U.N. Security Council’s inbox, ushering in a period of limbo while diplomats try to coax the parties into negotiations.

The mess would occur if violence erupts after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hands over the letter, throwing the diplomatic efforts to the winds.

Below is a description of these scenarios and how they may play out for the Palestinians, Israel and the United States.

THE MISE-EN-SCENE

The Palestinians have decided to ask for full membership in the United Nations, arguing that nearly two decades of peace negotiations with Israel have not brought them a state.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A scenario is emerging that might prevent an Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic train wreck at the United Nations this week but analysts and officials say it will require near perfect timing and diplomacy to pull it off.

Under the scenario, described by people familiar with the diplomacy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would submit a letter seeking full U.N. membership on Friday and the U.N. Security Council will postpone action on it for weeks.

The so-called Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — would then issue a finely-balanced statement giving each side enough political cover to agree to resume peace talks, possibly within weeks.

The idea is to prevent action — such as a Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood that is bound to fail or a vote in the General Assembly likely to embarrass, isolate and anger Israel — that will make resuming peace talks even harder.

The problem is that the delicate choreography needed could be tripped up by myriad factors, from violence on the ground to diplomats’ failure to craft a statement that will coax both sides back into talks that broke off nearly a year ago.

“It’s kind of the only scenario that stops the train wreck,” said Daniel Kurtzer of Princeton University, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

“In any dynamic in which there are a lot of moving parts, they all have to move in harmony and in sync for the scenario to play out,” he added. “This one has so many moving parts to it that you have to think about the spoilers.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A scenario is emerging that might prevent an Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic train wreck at the United Nations this week but analysts and officials say it will require near perfect timing and diplomacy to pull it off.

Under the scenario, described by people familiar with the diplomacy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would submit a letter seeking full U.N. membership on Friday and the U.N. Security Council will postpone action on it for weeks.

The so-called Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — would then issue a finely-balanced statement giving each side enough political cover to agree to resume peace talks, possibly within weeks.

The idea is to prevent action — such as a Security Council vote on Palestinian statehood that is bound to fail or a vote in the General Assembly likely to embarrass, isolate and anger Israel — that will make resuming peace talks even harder.

The problem is that the delicate choreography needed could be tripped up by myriad factors, from violence on the ground to diplomats’ failure to craft a statement that will coax both sides back into talks that broke off nearly a year ago.

“It’s kind of the only scenario that stops the train wreck,” said Daniel Kurtzer of Princeton University, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

“In any dynamic in which there are a lot of moving parts, they all have to move in harmony and in sync for the scenario to play out,” he added. “This one has so many moving parts to it that you have to think about the spoilers.”

NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Reuters) – The United States urged Turkey on Monday not to do anything to worsen its relationship with Israel, U.S. officials said on Monday, seeking to prevent relations between two U.S. allies from deteriorating further.

One official offered no details but may have been alluding to the possibility of the Turkish navy escorting aid flotillas to the Gaza Strip ruled by the Hamas Islamist group, which the United States and Israel regard as a terrorist organization.

Israel’s May 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killed nine Turkish citizens and the idea of future Turkish naval escorts raise the possibility of a military confrontation between two major U.S. allies in the Middle East.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered the message in a nearly one-hour meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that also touched on the Cyprus dispute, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Syria’s brutal crackdown on protests against the four-decade Assad government.

Israel’s refusal to apologize for the flotilla incident has angered Turkey, an ally of the United States through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and a growing economic power.

“She encouraged Turkey to keep the door open,” a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said after Clinton and Davutoglu met ahead of the U.N. General Assembly session that opens this week.

“We want to see them repair their relationship, so she encouraged them to avoid any steps that would close that door and, on the contrary, to actively seek ways that they can repair (their) important relationship with Israel,” he added.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Pakistan in 3-1/2 hours of talks on Sunday to attack the Haqqani network militant group Washington blames for a recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, a senior U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the issue of counterterrorism in general and the Haqqani network in particular were the first and last topics discussed by Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

The Haqqani network is one of three, and perhaps the most feared, of the Taliban-allied insurgent factions fighting U.S.-led NATO and Afghan troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Insurgents in a bomb-laden truck occupied a building in Kabul on Tuesday, raining rockets and gunfire on the U.S. embassy and other targets in the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital, and battled police during a 20-hour siege.

Five Afghan police and 11 civilians were killed.

“Obviously the issue of counterterrorism was both the first issue and the last issue on their agenda,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, describing the meeting as “very substantial, very candid.”

A second senior U.S. official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said it had always been Clinton’s plan to have two to three hours of talks with Khar to discuss U.S.-Pakistan relations, which are marked by deep distrust.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A last-ditch international push began in New York on Sunday to try to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

Officials met two days after President Mahmoud Abbas said he would demand full membership of the world body for a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Asked before the meeting if either could report any progress, Clinton replied, “We are meeting to talk about the way forward.” Asked if that meant no progress, she said, “I didn’t say that.”

Senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators — were also due to meet on Sunday as part of an intense effort in recent weeks to persuade the Palestinians to drop their U.N. plans.

Washington and Israel say a U.N. vote over Palestinian statehood would damage chances for peace negotiations, arguing that a state can only be created through a settlement between the two sides.

But in a televised speech on Friday, Abbas said he would request the Palestinians’ “legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine.” The Palestinians say almost 20 years of on-off direct talks on statehood envisaged by interim peace accords have hit a dead end.

The United States says it will veto in the Security Council a Palestinian application for full U.N. membership, but former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves an envoy for the Quartet, said on Sunday a showdown could still be averted.