UNITED NATIONS - Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki Wednesday urged the United States to reconsider its intention to veto any UN Security Council move recognizing Palestinian statehood.

"I would have really advised them to wait until the last minute and then to contemplate the situation, to discuss it with us, with other friends, before they decide," Al-Maliki said here in an interview with Xinhua.

The foreign minister suggested that Washington has now reached a dead end.

"DO OUR PART"

During his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly debate, US President Barack Obama reiterated that his country would veto any UN Security Council move recognizing Palestinian statehood.

Despite the US threat and mounting pressure, Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) plans to submit a bid for full UN membership on Friday and ask the Security Council to vote on it.

"We are determined that on Friday when the president ends his speech at the General Assembly, he will go and he will meet with the secretary-general of the United Nations, he will deliver our request for membership to the United Nations as a full-fledged state, and this will be the end of it for our part," Al-Maliki told media.

"The moment we deliver the request for application, we end our part and then the Security Council really starts operating," he said.

The Palestinians will watch the following process "very carefully," he said, adding that "based on the reaction of the Security Council, we will decide what will be our second move."

OBAMA'S SPEECH SLAMMED

Meanwhile, the Palestinian official called Obama's address at the General Assembly Wednesday "a one-sided speech" that didn't come as a surprise.

"We knew in advance the position of President Barack Obama," Al-Maliki said. "The only surprise was that it was a one-sided speech. It was an election campaign speech directed to the Americans, not to the international community."

Calling the speech "a total disappointment" and citing Israel's continued "occupation" and settlement expansion, the minister said, "It seems that he forgot that the victims here are the Palestinians, not the Israelis."

Frustration at the lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is one of the main reasons for the PNA's UN bid. Direct talks between the two sides stalled in October 2010, when Israel declined to renew a moratorium on its settlement building in the West Bank.

If the US veto threat is realized at the Security Council, the foreign minister said, Palestinians will have to "revise the (peace) process" and seek "a proactive third party involvement."

The revision is aimed at generating ideas through which "we could really see a chance and possibilities for a peace agreement at the end of the tunnel," he added.

"Wait for Friday, and you will see exactly what will happen in the Arab cities," he said. "You will see millions and millions of people taking to the streets and speaking on behalf and in support of Palestinians. And they will denounce the speech of President Barack Obama."