Washington —

The United States on Wednesday opposed Palestinian bids for full United Nations membership, with Washington saying it supports statehood but not after negotiations with Israel.

“We support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

“This should be done through direct negotiations between the parties, which is what we are currently pursuing, not at the United Nations,” he said, without making it clear that the United States would veto the proposal if it led to a security agreement. Council.

Miller said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been actively working to establish “security guarantees” for Israel as part of the groundwork for a Palestinian state.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is increasingly emphasizing support for a Palestinian state and a reformed Palestinian Authority in charge of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as it looks for a way to end the ongoing war that its allies Israel is seeking to eliminate Hamas in this war. Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted Palestinian statehood for decades and leads a far-right government whose members are hostile to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank.

Under longstanding legislation in the U.S. Congress, the U.S. must cut off funding to U.N. agencies that grant full membership to the Palestinian state.

The law is applied selectively. The United States cut off funding in 2011 and later withdrew from UNESCO, the U.N. cultural and scientific agency, but the Biden administration has made a comeback, saying it is better to stay on site.

Robert Wood, deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations, said recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations would mean “funding from the U.N. system would be cut off, so we would have to be bound by U.S. law.”

“We hope they don’t do it, but it’s up to them,” Wood said of the Palestinian bid.

The Palestinian Authority has submitted a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asking the Security Council to reconsider its long-standing bid for statehood in April.

Any request for U.N. membership must first be recommended by the Security Council, where the United States, Israel’s main backer, and four other countries have veto power, and then supported by a two-thirds majority of the U.N. General Assembly.

Palestinian President Abbas applied for statehood in 2011 without review by the Security Council, but the United Nations General Assembly granted observer status to the “State of Palestine” the following year.