Susan Rice, the American
ambassador to the UN, said there was "no greater threat" to US
support and funding of the UN than the prospect of Palestinian statehood
being endorsed by member states.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian
authority, plans to ask the UN general assembly, which comprises all 192
members, to vote on recognition at its annual meeting in New York in
September.
The US and Israel are pressing Mr Abbas to drop his plans. Mr Obama has
strongly opposed the move, raising the prospect of a veto in the UN Security
Council, which is expected to vote on a Palestinian statehood proposal in
July.
But Palestinian officials have spoken of their determination to a circumvent a
US veto by deploying a rarely used Cold War mechanism known as "Uniting
for Peace" under which a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly
can override the Security Council.
Although Palestinians believe they are close to securing such a majority, the
General Assembly does not have the power to confer UN membership on a new
Palestinian state, meaning that a successful vote would represent little
more than a symbolic triumph.
Even so, Republicans in the US Congress are promising to react aggressively to
any approval of statehood. Two congressmen have already vowed to initiate
bills to withdraw UN funding in the House of Representatives.
Such a development could be devastating to the UN. The US provides almost a
quarter of its $2.5 billion (f1.6 billion) annual budget, making a yearly
contribution of almost $600 million (f375 million).
Speaking at an event in Washington, Miss Rice said the Obama administration
was devoting "extraordinary efforts and energy" to restarting
middle-eastern peace talks so that a vote in September could be avoided.
On the prospect of it being approved, she said: "This would be
exceedingly politically damaging in our domestic context, as you can well
imagine.
"And I cannot frankly think of a greater threat to our ability to
maintain financial and political support for the United Nations in Congress
than such an outcome".
A video of Miss Rice making the comments has been removed from the internet.
Attempting to play down their significance, a spokesman for the ambassador
said: "These were informal remarks in a domestic setting."
The US is desperate to avoid being put into a position of having to wield its
veto. With growing international support for Palestinian statehood, even in
Europe, the US is looking increasingly isolated in its support for Israel
and a veto would badly damage Mr Obama's credentials in a rapidly changing
Middle East.
But the president faces a politically damaging backlash from the pro-Israeli
lobby and its many supporters in Congress if he does not block a resolution,
a move that could also cost all-important Jewish votes in key swing states
like Florida during next year's presidential election.
Mr Obama has already angered the Israeli government and its US supporters by
calling for a Palestinian state that roughly corresponds to the existing
boundaries of the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel occupied after the Six
Day war of 1967.
The move was intended to rejuvenate the stalled Middle East peace process.
But Palestinian officials, in public at least, say they remain committed to a
UN vote as the only realistic way of breaking the deadlock.
Western powers have backed a two-year Palestinian state-building programme
that reaches fruition at the end of August. It has already been judged a
success by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and Palestinian
officials say it would be hypocritical for the West to back the
state-building exercise but not its "logical outcome".
Britain has indicated that it would not join the US in vetoing Palestinian
statehood in the Security Council. But David Cameron is also hoping to avert
a highly divisive vote in the general assembly.
"The question is whether we can do anything that might deflect the
Palestinians from going ahead with this," a British diplomatic source
said.
Some Palestinian officials have conceded in private that they do not want to
fall out with Mr Obama and are working on ways to resume peace talks with
Israel and postpone a statehood vote.
