US vetoes Palestinian bid for full UN membership

‘The US vetoed the Palestinian bid for full UN membership.

The Algeria-submitted resolution to recognize the state of Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations.

The US vetoed a draft resolution that recommended to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership” of the United Nations.

The Algeria-submitted resolution received 12 votes in favour, two abstentions from Britain and Switzerland and a vote against by the United States, which is one of five permanent members of the 15-member Security Council with veto power.

“The United States continues to strongly support a two-state solution. This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood told the council.

The Veto vote prevented the resolution from moving on to the 193-member General Assembly where another round of balloting would have been held on the admission of the state of Palestine, which is one of two non-member observers of the intergovernmental organization, along with the Holy See.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the US veto in a statement calling the move “unfair, unethical, and unjustified.”

Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council after the vote: “Our right to self-determination has never once been the subject of bargaining or negotiation. Our right to self-determination is a natural right, a historic right, a legal right to live in our homeland, Palestine as an independent state that is free and that is sovereign.”

“We will not disappear. The people of Palestine will not be buried,” he added.

The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood granted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012.

However, an application to become a full U.N. member must be approved by the Security Council and then at least two-thirds of the General Assembly.

A council’s latest resolution needed at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, Britain, France, Russia or China to pass.