Watch: India supports Palestine's UN statehood bid. But, will it get vetoed?

Amidst increasing support for its bid to become the newest UN member-state, Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to make a formal pitch for Palestine statehood in an address to the United Nations General assembly, today.

Two of the five permanent Security Council members — China and Russia — have already expressed their support of Palestine’s plan, even as the US and UK say that the country’s statehood cannot be decided in the echelons of the United Nations.

France, the other permanent member of the Security Council, is in favour of granting Palestine observer status .

Speaking at the opening address of the General Assembly session on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said , Palestinians deserved their own State, but, also that Israel deserved recognition and normal relations with its neighbours, but “Peace will not come from statements and resolutions made at the United Nations”.

In what many Palestinians would view as an opposition to their country’s bid, Obama told the General Assembly that he is “convinced that there is no shortcut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades,” and that “Ultimately, its the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side.”

Many who have covered and watched the Israel-Palestinian conflict for years tend to agree. “Going for full membership will allow the Palestanians to join various UN bodies and perhaps the International criminal court. But, as such it wont solve the issues on the ground, such as borders and security,” Denise Fitzergerald, reporter at the Saudi Press Agency told CNN-IBN.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh already expressed India’s full support to Palestine in a letter to Abbas before he left for the UN General Assembly, both, the US and Israel will be watching any formal statement India may make about it in the UN.

Israel ambassador to India Alon Ushpiz, has already termed India’s support of Palestine as a “negative development” . “Israel and India are very close friends, and they have wide-ranging and frank discussions. Friends should not protest against each other,” he said to the Indian Express.

India’s bilateral trade with Israel stands at approximately $5 billion annually and its defense ties are estimated to be worth $9 billion.

But, India has also been a long standing ally of Palestine, supporting numerous Palestinian-related resolutions at the United Nations. It was also the first non-Arab state to recognise Palestine in 1988, New Delhi has supported Non-Aligned Movement-sponsored resolutions on the need for the expeditious establishment of a Palestinian state and co-sponsored and voted favourably on a draft resolution at the UN (on February 18) that termed Israeli settlement policies ‘illegal.’

While other members of the General Assembly are also expected to support Palestine’s bid, America’s stake in Israel may see the bill being vetoed by it in the Security Council.

“The international community is disposed to recognise them,” Kahraman Haliscelik, NY bureau chief Turkish Radio and TV, told CNN-IBN . “But you have some major impediments and the biggest is certainly the United States’ commitment to its Israeli ally, to not promote Palestinian membership in the UN until there is a a peace deal that resolves all the issues between  them,” he said.

Manmohan Singh, who will also be hoping to push for India’s permanent Security Council seat and reforms ,  will address the UN General Assembly on Saturday after a two year hiatus.

Watch video on Palestine’s bid for statehood: