2024-04-19 04:58:26
The UN Security Council on Thursday rejected the Palestinians’ request to become a full member state of the United Nations. The United States vetoed this request.
The draft resolution, prepared by Algeria, requested “the General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted as a member of the United Nations”. But from the start, the initiative was doomed to failure due to opposition from the United States, which has a veto in the Council.
Indeed, the admission of a State to the UN must first receive a positive recommendation from the Council, that is to say at least 9 votes out of 15 in favor, without veto from a permanent member, then be approved by the General Assembly, by a two-thirds majority. According to the Palestinian Authority’s count, 137 of the 193 UN member states unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.
A procedure already aborted in 2011
In September 2011, the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas launched the procedure requesting “the accession of the State of Palestine to the UN”, which never came to fruition, in the face of American opposition. . The Palestinians finally obtained “non-member observer state” status in November 2012 during a vote by the General Assembly. They relaunched their request for full membership in early April, highlighting the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The United States had already repeated in recent weeks that their position had “not changed” since 2011. They believe that the UN is not the place for the recognition of a Palestinian state, which according to them should result from an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. They also recall that American legislation would require them to cut their funding to the UN in the event of Palestinian accession outside of such a bilateral agreement.
The closed-door meetings of the Council’s “admissions committee” did not make it possible to reach a consensus, even if “two-thirds” of the member states were in favor of joining, according to the Maltese ambassador. Vanessa Frazier, who chairs the Council in April.
An “essential initiative”
The date of the vote coincided with a meeting planned for several weeks of the Council on the situation in Gaza, at which several ministers from Arab countries were expected. They issued a statement on Tuesday affirming their “unwavering support” for the Palestinian request.
“We call on all members of the Security Council to vote in favor of the draft resolution submitted by Algeria on behalf of the Arab group (…). At a minimum, we implore the members of the Council not to obstruct this essential initiative,” they indicated in this text published on the X account of the Palestinian mission to the UN.
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