JERUSALEM (BNO NEWS) -- Israel threatened the United Nations Security Council and several European Union countries to respond with a series of "unilateral steps" if the Palestinian Authority persists in its efforts to gain international recognition for statehood at the UN General Assembly session in September, the Haaretz newspaper reported Tuesday.

Rafael Barak, the Foreign Ministry's director general, sent a classified cable last week to more than 30 Israeli embassies, directing them to launch a diplomatic protest against the Palestinian efforts. Israeli diplomats stressed that such a move violates the Oslo Accords and could lead to violence on the ground.

According to the newspaper, Israel's government has not decided yet how to respond to a possible UN recognition of Palestinian statehood, but right wing groups have suggested that the country might apply Israeli law to the West Bank or annex major settlement blocs to Israel.

September will mark one year in which Israel and the Palestinians agreed to conclude negotiations and in which U.S. President Barack Obama hoped Palestine would become a member of the United Nations General Assembly. In addition, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's program of establishing institutions for a future Palestinian state is due to be wrapped up this coming September.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met on Sunday in Ramallah with former Israeli Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin and told him that the Palestinian Authority would not engage in further negotiations with Israel after September. Senior Palestinian sources added, however, that if negotiations are resumed before September and make progress, the Palestinians would be prepared to defer efforts to gain UN recognition of statehood.

Abbas told Beilin that it would be possible to engage in three months of talks in an effort to achieve progress before September, but Netanyahu would have to suspend construction in the West Bank settlements during that period.

Meanwhile, it appears that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backtracked on his intention to start the peace process.

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