US Blocks Full UN Membership for Palestine

The US vetoed on 18 April a Security Council resolution on the recognition of Palestine as a full member state in the UN.

The resolution – put forth by Algeria – was widely supported, with 12 member states voting in favor of the resolution, including Japan, France, South Korea, Slovenia, Russia, and China. Switzerland and the UK abstained.

US Deputy Envoy to the UN, Robert Wood, reiterated Washington’s stance that statehood for Palestine can only be achieved through direct agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The US has “long been clear that premature actions here in New York, even with the best intentions, will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” he said.

The office of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that the US veto was a “blatant aggression … which pushes the region ever further to the edge of the abyss,” calling it “unfair, unethical and unjustified.” Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the failure will not break the will for statehood.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called expressed “deep regret” over the Security Council’s inability to pass the resolution.

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas also condemned Washington’s veto at the Security Council.

It condemned “in the strongest terms the American position biased towards the occupation,” calling on the international community “to exert pressure to go beyond the American will and support the struggle of our Palestinian people and their legitimate right to self-determination.”

“We assure the world that our Palestinian people will continue their struggle and resistance until they defeat the occupation, take away their rights, and establish their independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Prior to the vote, Washington had been actively working to prevent it, “pressing the Arab Group to withdraw the draft resolution,” according to what a Palestinian official told Sky News Arabia. The source told the news channel that “the Palestinian decision and the Arab group is not to withdraw the decision and put it to a vote on it despite the threat of the American veto.”

The PA has been requesting statehood and full recognition at the UN for years. It had first applied for full membership in 2011 before the bid stalled.

Permanent Security Council members Russia and China have long backed the initiative of a two-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel.