Saturday, 10 September 2011
On Friday, Riyad Mansour told reporters that the Palestinian leadership will make its decision during a meeting in Cairo on Monday with supporters from other Arab nations.
While the Palestinians say they plan to seek UN recognition in the coming weeks, it’s unknown which of several possible paths they may take.
The Palestinians could either start with the Security Council, where the United States has vowed to veto the move, or with the General Assembly, where a two-thirds majority will be needed. Approval by both UN bodies will be needed for membership or recognition.
President Mahmud Abbas will lead a Palestinian delegation to an Arab League foreign ministers’ meeting in Cairo on Monday that will discuss the UN campaign that has angered the United States and Israel, Mansour said.
“Arab foreign ministers, with the participation of President Abbas and the Palestinian delegation, might announce one option we are going to start with -- whether it is first the Security Council, or whether it is the General Assembly,” AFP reported him as saying.
Abbas is to attend the UN General Assembly summit of world leaders starting September 20, but Mansour said no meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has yet been confirmed to hand over a Palestinian application.
The alternative would be to start with observer state membership -- the so-called “Vatican Option” -- at the UN General Assembly. The Palestinians are already recognized as an observer mission.
Mansour said full UN membership was “our natural, legal and historic right.”
“One can take the expressway to do it and one can take the local road through the General Assembly to do it. In both cases, both roads lead to Rome. One might take longer than the other one,” Mansour commented.
He said that even with observer state status, the Palestinians could still become full members of UN agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Mansour said the Palestinians could also become signatories of the International Criminal Court.
Under UN rules, any bid for full membership requires a recommendation from the Security Council and then a two-thirds majority in the 193-member General Assembly. Observer status would only require a straight majority in the General Assembly where no veto is possible.
The United States and Israel say that any UN vote would only be symbolic and that only direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations can finalize an accord to establish a Palestinian state.
Talks have been frozen for one year, since Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/09/10166168
