US Envoy Seems to Confirm No Last-Minute UN Moves on Israel

"The US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said Thursday that Washington would oppose one-sided initiatives for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, amid fears in Jerusalem that President Barack Obama would make a last-ditch effort for a peace push, possibly at the United Nations, in the last weeks of his administration.

'We will always oppose one-sided initiatives,' Shapiro told Army Radio, adding that this 'is a long-term policy. Whenever there were one-sided initiatives, we opposed them in the past and we will always oppose them.'

Earlier Thursday, US officials sought to allay Israel's concerns, indicating that Obama has nearly ruled out any major last-ditch effort to put pressure on Israel over the stalled peace negotiations, in order to avoid another conflict with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government as he leaves office and before he hands over to President-elect Donald Trump...

Discussions about those potential maneuvers, underway before the US election, have fallen off since Trump's surprise victory, officials said. Obama is now highly unlikely to approve either of those options presented to him by US diplomats, said the officials, who weren't authorized to discuss internal deliberations and requested anonymity..."