US vetoes Palestinian attempt to gain statehood at the United Nations

By Richard Roth and Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — The United States on Thursday blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have recognised the Palestinian Authority as a state.

Twelve members of the Security Council had voted in favor of the resolution, the United States vetoed it, and two countries had abstained.

US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel had announced earlier Thursday that the US would vote against the 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 Palestinian Authority met the criteria for membership as a state in the UN.

The US believes future statehood should be dependent on negotiations between Israel and 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.

Speaking before the Security Council Thursday, Ziad Abu Amr, Special Representative of the Palestinians, said: “how could granting the State of Palestine full membership at the United Nations, similar to other countries around the world, how could this damage the prospect of peace between Palestinians and Israelis?”

Earlier this month, another request by the Palestinian Authority for full state member status in the United Nations was reviewed by the UN Committee on the Admission of New Members.

It first put in a request to be recognized as a full member state in 2011. It was granted the status of non-member observer state in November of2012.

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 the 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.

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