UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States on Thursday vetoed a widely supported U.N. resolution that would have paved the way for Palestine’s full U.N. membership, a goal the Palestinians seek since a long time.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, with the United States opposed, and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. U.S. allies France, Japan and South Korea supported the resolution.
The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member General Assembly, without a veto, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, so its admission would have been approved, probably by a much higher number of countries.
Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood told the Council that the US veto “does not reflect opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, but rather a recognition that it will only come through direct negotiations between the parties.
Before the vote, US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said the United States had “always been very clear that premature actions in New York – even with the best intentions – will not will not allow the Palestinian people to become a state.
It is the second Palestinian attempt at full membership and comes as the war in Gaza has brought the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict to center stage.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first presented the Palestinian Authority’s application for membership in the UN in 2011. This bid failed because the Palestinians did not obtain the minimum required support from nine of the 15 members of the Security Council.
The Palestinians then went to the General Assembly and succeeded, by a majority of more than two-thirds, in changing their status from UN observer to non-member observer state in November 2012. This opened the door to the accession of the Palestinian territories to the UN. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.
The strong support the Palestinians received on Thursday reflects not only the growing number of countries recognizing their state, but also almost certainly the broad global support for Palestinians caught up in the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month.
Algerian U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council who introduced the resolution, called Palestine’s admission a “crucial step toward correcting a long-standing injustice” and said that “Peace will come from the inclusion of Palestine, not its exclusion.”
In explaining the US veto, Wood said there were “unresolved questions” about whether Palestine met the criteria to be considered a state. He stressed that Hamas still wields power and influence in the Gaza Strip, which is a key part of the Palestinians’ envisioned state.
Wood highlighted the United States’ commitment to a two-state solution in which Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace, as the only way for both sides to live in security and for Israel to establish relations with all its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
“The United States is committed to intensifying our engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the region, not only to resolve the current crisis in Gaza, but also to advance a political settlement that will pave the way for Palestinian statehood and membership in the UN. ,” he said.
Ziad Abu Amr, special representative of the Palestinian president, said adoption of the resolution would give the Palestinian people hope of “a decent life in an independent state.”
He stressed to the Security Council that this would not constitute an alternative “to serious and time-limited negotiations to implement the two-state solution” and UN resolutions, nor to resolve outstanding issues between Palestinians and Israelis.
“Granting the State of Palestine full membership will be an important pillar in achieving peace in our region, as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its various dimensions now extend beyond the borders of Palestine and Israel and affect other regions in and around the Middle East. the world,” the Palestinian envoy said before the vote.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have stalled for years and Israel’s right-wing government is dominated by hardliners who oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called the resolution “disconnected from reality on the ground” and warned that it “would only cause destruction in the years to come and harm any chance of dialogue future “.
Six months after the October 7 attack by Hamas, which controlled Gaza, and the death of 1,200 people in “the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust”, he accused the Security Council of seeking “to reward the perpetrators of these atrocities with sanctions.” independence.”
The Israeli military offensive in response has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and destroyed much of the territory.
Erdan listed the conditions for becoming a UN member – accepting the obligations of the UN Charter and above all being a “peace-loving” state.
“What a joke,” he said. “Does anyone doubt that the Palestinians have not met these criteria? Has anyone heard a Palestinian leader condemn the massacre of our children?
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