The United States said on Wednesday that establishing an independent Palestinian state should happen through direct negotiations between the parties and not at the United Nations, Reuters reports.

When asked if the US would use its Security Council veto to block the Palestinian bid, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “I’m not going to speculate about what may happen down the road.”

But he added that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel “is something that should be done through direct negotiations between the parties — it’s something we are pursuing at this time — and not at the United Nations.”

Malta is president of the Security Council for April. Malta’s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said on Wednesday that the Palestinian request had been circulated to council members.

“We will be consulting with each member to consider the appropriate way forward,” she told reporters.

Palestinian US envoy Riyad Mansour told Reuters on Monday that the aim was for the Security Council to take a decision at an April 18 ministerial meeting on the Middle East, but that a vote had yet to be scheduled.