US signals opposition to renewed Palestinian bid for statehood status at UN
State Department says Palestinian state should be established ‘through direct negotiations… not at the United Nations,’ as PLO envoy seeks vote later this month
The Biden administration on Wednesday indicated it opposes the renewed Palestinian bid to obtain full-member state status at the United Nations, which the PLO’s delegation to the United Nations is pushing for a vote on later this month.
“We have always made clear that, while we support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state… that is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties — something we are pursuing at this time — and not at the United Nations,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing.
US opposition to the initiative in the UN Security Council would all but block it, given that Washington has veto power.
Miller added that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been actively engaged in establishing “security guarantees” for Israel as part of the groundwork for a Palestinian state.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has increasingly signaled support for a Palestinian state, with a reformed Palestinian Authority in charge both in the West Bank and Gaza, as it looks for a way to end the ongoing war in which Israel is seeking to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip following the terror group’s October 7 onslaught.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas originally launched the statehood application in 2011. It was not considered by the Security Council, but the General Assembly the following year granted a more limited observer status to the “State of Palestine.”
The Palestinian Authority submitted a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asking for the Security Council to reconsider on Tuesday.
“We are seeking admission. That is our natural and legal right,” PLO Ambassador Riyad Mansour said earlier Wednesday, adding that he was pushing for an April 18 vote at the Security Council.
“Everyone is saying ‘two-state solution,’ then what is the logic of denying us to become a member state?” he added.
Under longstanding US legislation, the United States is required to cut off funding to UN agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state.
The law has been applied selectively. The United States cut off funding in 2011 and later withdrew from the UN cultural and scientific agency UNESCO, but it rejoined it last year under President Joe Biden.
Robert Wood, the US deputy representative to the United Nations, said that recognition of a Palestinian state by the world body as a whole would mean “funding would be cut off to the UN system, so we’re bound by US law.”
“Our hope is that they don’t pursue that, but that’s up to them,” Wood said of the Palestinians’ bid.
Malta is president of the Security Council for April. Malta’s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said on Wednesday that the Palestinian request had been circulated to council members.
“We will be consulting with each member to consider the appropriate way forward,” she told reporters.
