New York, September 20 (QNA) - US Republican lawmaker Joe Walsh has introduced a resolution warning Palestinian leaders that Israel would be within its rights to annex the West Bank if they do not drop their bid for statehood at the United Nations this week. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) introduced the resolution as a way of urging Palestinian leaders to pull back from their plans to seek formal recognition for their state at the UN General Assembly meetings, which take place this week, according to his spokesman, Justin Roth.
"The intent is to explain to the Palestinians that actions have consequences," Roth told (The Huffington Post).
"A major tenet of the Oslo Accords is that the parties at least continue to negotiate in good faith and don't do anything involving the international community without each other," he said.
Roth said that 30 other congressmen have signed on to the resolution.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a large delegation of State Department officials are already in New York on the eve of the high-level meetings, consulting with heads of state and urging them to help rebuff the Palestinian plan.
The Walsh resolution represents the harshest rhetoric yet in a steadily building -- and bipartisan -- flow of congressional dismay over the statehood initiative, which Palestinian leaders have pledged to introduce at the end of the week.
Last week, nearly 60 House Democrats joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in calling for European heads of state to oppose the statehood initiative alongside the United States.
Meanwhile, several congressmen have introduced or supported legislation that would strip the Palestinian Authority of US funding if the statehood initiative goes through, while a tougher bill -- sponsored by Reps. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Robert Brady (D-Pa.) -- would block funding to any country that votes with the Palestinians. (QNA)