Israel's Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor says Tel Aviv has no chance of stopping states that are set to vote for the recognition of a Palestinian state at the General Assembly.
In a classified cable to the Israeli Foreign Ministry last week, Prosor said that Israel will not be able to rally a substantial number of states to oppose the resolution for recognizing a Palestinian state in September, Haaretz reported on Sunday.
"The maximum that we can hope to gain [at the UN vote] is for a group of states who will abstain or be absent during the vote," Prosor said.
He added that his comments are based on more than 60 meetings he had held during the past few weeks with his counterparts at the United Nations.
"Only a few countries will vote against the Palestinian initiative," the Israeli envoy said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry sources estimate that 130-140 countries will vote in favor of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority declared September 20 as the date when it would apply for the United Nations' recognition of Palestine as an independent state.
More than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine as a sovereign state based on the 1967 borders, the boundaries that existed before Israel captured and annexed East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
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