RAMALLAH: The Palestinians intend to ask the UN Security Council to recognise their independence, a senior official said today amid mounting frustration with the stalled peace process.

“We have reached a decision... to go to the UN Security Council to ask for recognition of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and with June 1967 borders,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP. “We’re going to seek support from EU countries and Russia and other countries” for the measure, he said.

Erakat’s comments came amid growing frustration among the Palestinians with so-far ineffective US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations with Israel that were suspended during the Gaza Strip war at the turn of the year.

They mark the latest in a series of options that the Palestinians have warned they could take if the Middle East peace process remained stalled.

Others include unilaterally declaring independence, asking the UN to determine final borders of their promised state, dissolving the Palestinian Authority and seeking equal rights within Israel.