This comes at a time when the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that she does not believe that a draft UN resolution from the Palestinian Authority, recommending that it gain full membership in the organization, would help reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Thomas-Greenfield made these statements during a press conference in Seoul after asking whether the United States was ready to approve the Palestinian Authority’s request for full membership in the United Nations.
Agence France-Presse quoted several diplomatic sources as saying that the UN Security Council will vote on Thursday on a request submitted by the Palestinian Authority to obtain full membership in the United Nations.
A report seen by Reuters by a UN Security Council committee examining the Palestinian Authority’s application for full membership in the United Nations stated that the committee “was unable to make a unanimous recommendation” on whether the application meets the criteria.
The United States said this month that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state must be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and not in the United Nations.
When asked whether the United States would use its veto power in the Security Council to block the Palestinian attempt, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “I will not speculate about what might happen in the future.”
But he added that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state while providing security guarantees for Israel “must be achieved through direct negotiations between the two parties, which is what we are seeking at this time, and not through the United Nations.”
Little progress has been achieved in establishing a Palestinian state since the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the early 1990s.
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