.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
/
US vetoes Palestinian attempt to gain statehood at the United Nations
By Richard Roth and Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Updated:
7:17 PM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
Source: CNN
The United States on Thursday blocked a United Nations Security Council
resolution that would have recognised a Palestinian state.
Twelve members of the Security Council had voted in favor of the
resolution, while two countries – the UK and Switzerland –
abstained. The US vetoed it.
The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, sharply criticized
the US veto, saying in a statement that it was “unfair, immoral, and
unjustified, and defies the will of the international community,
which strongly supports the State of Palestine obtaining full
membership in the United Nations.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised the US for vetoing what
he called a “shameful proposal.”
“The proposal to recognize a Palestinian state, more than 6 months
after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and after the
sexual crimes and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists was
a reward for terrorism”, Katz wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter,
after the US veto.
The Palestinian efforts to gain recognition as a member state of the UN
came six months after Hamas – the militant group that controls the
Gaza Strip – launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing
more than 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 240 hostages. Israel
responded to the atrocities of October 7 last year with an assault that
has has killed nearly 34,000 people in Gaza, according to authorities
there.
US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel had announced
earlier Thursday that the US would vote against the Security Council
resolution, saying that 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,” referring to the
headquarters of the United Nations.
He also noted there was no unanimity as to whether the Palestinians met
the criteria for membership as a state in the UN, saying the US
believes future statehood should be dependent on negotiations between
Israel and representatives of the Palestinians. “The most expeditious
path towards statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct
negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the
support of the United States and other partners who share this goal,”
Patel said.
Palestinian attempts for recognition as a full member state began in
2011. They are currently a non-member observer state, a status that was
granted in November 2012.
At the time, UN Ambassador of the Palestinian Territories Riyad
Mansour called the step a “historic moment,” adding that he hoped
“the Security Council will elevate itself to implanting the global
consensus on the two-state solution by admitting the state of Palestine
for full membership.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan condemned Friday’s move as
consideration of a “Palestinian terror state.”
“This won’t be a regular state. It will be a Palestine-Nazi state,
an entity that achieved statehood despite being committed to terror and
Israel’s annihilation,” Erdan added.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
DIR <- back to index