The US has announced it will exercise its veto in the U.N. Security Council to block a bid by the PA to gain UN membership.
The United States has announced it will veto any statehood bid by the Palestinian Authority at the United Nations.
The Obama administration said Thursday it would exercise its veto power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to block the PA move.
“If any such resolution were put in front of the Security Council, then we would veto it,” said Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for policy, third-ranked at the U.S. State Department.
“The General Assembly is still of concern, and so there is very urgent work going on to try to see if there's not another way forward,” Sherman added, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The U.S. has been feverishly working all diplomatic channels, overt and back channel, to avert Thursday's official move by the PA launching its campaign for recognition as a new country and membership in the international body.
After months of effort were ignored and criticized, the U.S. finally bit the bullet Wednesday and formally asked Ramallah to drop its statehood bid.
The very next morning, 100 PA officials gathered at the Ramallah headquarters in response to launch the entity's official campaign for statehood recognition and membership in the United Nations.
The U.N. General Assembly could pass a resolution granting recognition to the PA as a new Arab country.
However, even if such a resolution were to pass, the PA could not gain full membership without the unanimous approval of all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. It could, however, be granted non-voting nation membership status, similar to that of the Vatican.
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147690
Topic: It's Official: US Will Veto PA's UN Statehood Bid (Read 548 times)