RAMALLAH, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Jordanian King Abdullah II conveyed U.S. assurances to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Washington will not allow a new Israeli settlement plan to pass, a Palestinian official said Thursday.
The United States will put pressure on Israel to cancel a recent building plan, in exchange for not starting the Palestinian efforts to join UN agencies, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States, Israel and Canada were among the nine UN members which voted last week against the Palestinian request to upgrade their status in the United Nations to that of a non-member observer state.
During the vote on the Palestinian bid at the UN General Assembly, 138 countries voted in favor, while 41 abstained.
King Abdullah II, the first head of state to visit the Palestinian territories after the UN vote, told Abbas that U.S. President Barak Obama's administration will not impose sanctions on the Palestinian National Authority.
He also said that Washington will work on preventing the construction of new housing units in the E1 area, which connects the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim with Jerusalem. Israel's construction there is highly controversial since the corridor blocs a possible formation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank with a territorial continuity.
The Jordanian king also urged Abbas to look for "a suitable formula" allowing the resumption of peace talks with Israel.
The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations stopped in 2010 over a dispute on Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank.
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