UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The United States (US) vetoed a widely backed United Nations (UN) resolution yesterday that would have paved the way for full UN membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favour, the US opposed and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. US allies France, Japan and South Korea supported the resolution.
The strong support the Palestinians received reflects not only the growing number of countries recognising their statehood but almost certainly the global support for Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month. The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member UN General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the UN. Some 140 countries have already recognised Palestine, so its admission would have been approved, likely by a much higher number of countries.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council that the veto “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” The US has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York – even with the best intentions – will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.
His voice breaking at times, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council after the vote: “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination.”
“We will not stop in our effort,” he said. “The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real. Perhaps they see it as far away, but we see it as near.”
This is the second Palestinian attempt for full membership and comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at centre stage.
