Pakistan regrets US veto resolution on Palestine’s UN membership bid: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday expressed its disappointment in the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) inability to reach a consensus on Palestine’s full membership of the United Nations, also regretting the US decision to veto the draft resolution.

“Pakistan is deeply disappointed by the result of last night’s debate at UNSC and its inability to reach a consensus and recommend Palestine’s membership to UNGA. We regret the US decision to veto the draft resolution granting full membership of the UN to Palestine,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in her weekly press briefing.

The Security Council blocked Palestine’s bid to become a full member of the United Nations due to a United States veto on a widely-supported resolution that would have recommended the granting of such status.

The proposal, submitted in the 15-member Council by Algeria, received 12 votes in favour, with the United States casting a negative vote and Switzerland and the United Kingdom abstaining.

A Council resolution requires at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes from its five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — to pass.

Before the vote, diplomats said the US mission had been trying to convince one or two other council members to vote against, to mitigate Washington’s isolation on the issue, but American officials said they were resigned to having to wield the US veto once more in support of Israel.

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“We don’t want to replace anyone; we want to enter your club as equals,” Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told the council. He said they would not give up because the resolution was vetoed.

“We believe, the time has come for admission of Palestine to the UN. This will be a step towards correcting the historic injustice suffered by Palestinians for over 75 years. It will affirm their right to self-determination,” she remarked.

The spokesperson said that the people of Palestine had their inherent right to live in a sovereign Palestinian state with the pre-1967 borders and Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.