The Palestinians said on Friday their leaders would decide quickly whether to seek a vote in the UN Security Council on their bid for UN membership — even though they face certain defeat — or to pursue other UN options.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, said the Palestinians would be consulting Arab leaders and supporters on their next steps after the council’s admissions committee approved a report saying there is no consensus among the 15 council nations on the membership application.
The admissions committee sent the report to the Security Council after a brief closed meeting on Friday. Council president Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral of Portugal said members would examine it and discuss possible future actions, but he gave no timetable.
For Palestine to become a UN member state, it needs the recommendation of the Security Council. That requires nine “yes” votes — which the Palestinians don’t appear to have — and no veto by a permanent member.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, -insists on a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before Palestine joins the UN and says it will veto a resolution recommending its membership now, if necessary.
Mansour mentioned one other option — going to the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, to raise the Palestinians’ UN status from a permanent observer to a nonmember observer state, like the Holy See.
He predicted that if the Palestinians were to decide to take this option, they will have strong support, including from European nations. He said that 11 EU members, including France and Spain, supported Palestinian membership in UNESCO, along with Norway and Iceland.
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