Frustrated by a lack of progress in peace talks, and feeling let down by the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, the Palestinian Authority (PA) says it wants to take its case to the UN Security Council.

The PA is seeking UN endorsement for the declaration of a de facto Palestinian state, on the land occupied in June 1967.

The move is an implicit admission by the PA of the failure of its bilateral engagement with Israel, which gave the US the authority to oversee peace talks at the expense of the UN.

Israel is worried that should this move succeed, all that would be left to negotiate would be the terms of Israeli military and civilian withdrawal from territories that would be internationally recognised as Palestinian.

But can Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, re-shape the parameters of negotiation.

Inside Story discusses with guests Abdullah al-Ashaal, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, Ranaan Gissin, a former senior adviser to Ariel Sharon, and Rosemary Hollis, the director of research at the Chatham House think tank.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Tuesday, November 17, 2009.