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UN admission committee unable to support Palestinian UN bid

Arab World Materials 11 November 2011 01:05 (UTC +04:00)
The United Nations Security Council planned to meet Friday to discuss an admission committee's report that states that it has been unable to recommend UN membership for the Palestinian Authority, dpa reported.
UN admission committee unable to support Palestinian UN bid

The United Nations Security Council planned to meet Friday to discuss an admission committee's report that states that it has been unable to recommend UN membership for the Palestinian Authority, dpa reported.

The conclusion by the Committee on the Admission of New Members was reached following several closed-door meetings since the end of September after it received an application from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The report said in summing up the final round of discussion end of October that the chairman of admission committee "states that the committee was unable to make a unanimous recommendation to the Security Council."

Palestinian officials in Ramallah, West Bank, this week already admitted as much that they could not muster the necessary nine votes, out of the 15 council members, to support their quest for UN membership.

France and Britain, two veto powers in the council, publicly stated they will abstain if there would be a vote.

The United States has threatened to veto while Germany, Bosnia, Colombia and Portugal are most likely to also abstain.

Council members who would vote for Palestinian UN membership are possibly Russia, China, India, Lebanon, Brazil and Lebanon, UN diplomats familiar with the discussions said. The positions of Nigeria and Gabon, the remaining council members, were not clear.

The admission committee dissected during meetings a set of criteria to be fulfilled by the PA if it were to be recognized a state that can fulfill obligations under the UN Charter, which is the constitution of the organization with 193 members. The report said the PA could meet the criteria in this case.

The 23-paragraph report said the committee has been "mindful of the broader political context" regardless of the outcome of discussion to admit the PA.

"The view was expressed that a negotiated solution remained the only option for a long-term sustainable peace and that final status issues had to be resolved through negotiations," the report said.

Admission committee members supported the two-state solution "based on pre-1967 borders, resulting from political negotiations, leading to an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital."

"It was stressed that the granting of Palestine's right to self-determination and recognition must not be seen as contrary to Israel's inalienable right to exist."

The document found that views expressed during the closed-door debate supported Palestinian statehood as a "peace-loving state, willing and able to carry all obligations under the UN Charter."

But in another paragraph, some committee members said Hamas, the de facto government in Gaza Strip, controls 40 per cent of the Palestinian people, and "therefore the PA could not be considered an effective government."

The report said, however, the PA has been able to enter into relations with other states and international organizations and therefore can be accepted as a state having the capacity to establish international relations. The PA is recognized by 130 countries.

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