Palestinians to push for UN membership on 11 November

Geneva: Palestinian diplomats are trying to muster support for a UN Security Council vote in New York on 11 November on their bid for membership in the global body, a senior Palestinian diplomat said today.

UN diplomats said earlier this week that a Security Council committee considering the membership bid would deliver a report on that day, and that ambassadors would then decide on the next steps.

Palestinians and their allies would need to get the backing of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members to request a vote, the same number required to approve a resolution. But the Security Council’s five permanent members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the US, each have veto power.

The US, Israel’s closest ally, has pledged to use its veto if a majority back Palestinian membership. “We still have time until 11 November, so there is a lot of efforts pushing certain countries to voting in favour,” Palestinian envoy to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, told The Associated Press.

Khraishi said “several parties are working” to secure the votes, but declined to elaborate. “Personally, I think that we will succeed to get the nine,” he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered the Palestinian application on 23 September 23. Hours later, the Quartet of Mideast mediators, the US, UN, EU and Russia, called for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in a month, with the goal of a peace agreement by the end of 2012.

The Israelis and Palestinians are scheduled to meet separately with the Quartet on Tuesday.

AP