US veto thwarts Palestinian request for full United Nations membership

The US veto this Thursday frustrated a vast diplomatic offensive at the UN to grant Palestine the status of full member of the organization. Despite the clear majority of support among the 15 members of the Security Council - twelve voted in favor and two, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, abstained - the US vote against was enough to derail the Palestinian request - since 2012 Permanent Observer State -, formulated in a letter to the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, on April 2. The admission of a new member had not been vetoed since 1976, when US President Gerald Ford urged his UN representation to block Vietnam's membership application. Almost half a century later, history repeats itself in the middle of another war.

As the number two

in the US mission to the United Nations, Robert Wood, had repeatedly announced,

Washington does not think it pertinent to grant membership without a prior agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, a desideratum bordering on the category of miracle after six months of war in the Strip. The United States has kept its word and prevented the initiative sponsored by Algeria, on behalf of the Arab group and those registered in the group of non-aligned countries, from coming to fruition.

The vote took place at the end of a meeting of the Security Council, in which the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, spoke. Joining the 139 members of the UN that have already done so, Spain's support for the state recognition of Palestine, which would have been the 194th member state of the UN, serves as an advance in the European Union. The head of Spanish diplomacy defended this Thursday in New York that it is the right time and the necessary step towards the political solution supported by the majority of the international community, that of the two States. "Nine members of the EU already recognize Palestine and others, such as Ireland, Slovenia and Malta", in addition to Spain, are willing as the only way to break the war

impasse

and avoid the possible regional spillover of the Gaza conflict, he recalled.

“Spain is going to recognize the Palestinian State because the Palestinian people cannot be condemned to being a people of refugees,” said Albares. “The Palestinian people have the right to hope and the Israeli people have the right to security. That is the path to peace and that brings us here today. “I am convinced that there is an alternative path to permanent violence and endless pain between peoples called to live together,” the minister said before the Council. Albares has also stressed that the massive Iranian attack on Israel over the weekend multiplies the risk of regional escalation, “more real than ever. There is no alternative but to direct our efforts towards a political solution. To guarantee that peace, everyone at this table knows what we must do: implement the two-state solution. Making this solution irreversible is making peace in the region irreversible. And there is a way to achieve it: recognize Palestine as one more in this United Nations organization,” Albares declared in the morning session of the Council, a few hours before the more than expected splash of cold water from the US veto.

The war situation gives more urgency to the need to recognize Palestine, according to diplomatic sources, according to whom Spain's move will become effective in a matter of weeks, rather than months "because the war demonstrates the urgency of recognition," through decision of the Council of Ministers or an extraordinary council. The same sources point out that the US veto on Palestine's membership, which is "inherent to Washington's foreign policy", does not cloud the diplomatic efforts that Spain is developing within the EU, "at first alone, with Ireland and two or three more; then countries that think similarly, but may have more doubts about the moment, such as Belgium, Luxembourg or Portugal. In the end it's about moving forward." Spain's will be a unilateral declaration, but in coordination with the UN and the group of Arab countries, the architect of the main ceasefire initiatives in Gaza.

The vote on the draft resolution to admit Palestine as a full member has been the subject of a frantic adjustment of the Security Council's schedule, with continuous changes to the agenda. After the US veto, Palestine will continue to be a permanent observer state at the UN, a status that allows it to participate in all the organization's procedures, except in voting on draft resolutions and decisions in its main organs and agencies, from the Security Council and the General Assembly to its six main committees. Even if its request for accession were referred to the Assembly, its status would not change, because the plenary cannot adopt legally binding decisions as the Security Council can.

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The ongoing process, momentarily slowed by Washington's veto, is a continuation of the one begun in September 2011, when the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, sent a letter requesting membership in the UN to the then head of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, who quickly forwarded the request to the Security Council and the General Assembly. In accordance with the Council's provisional rules of procedure, the Council referred the matter to its Committee on the Admission of New Members, which examined the application for two months, but due to lack of unanimity among its members, it was unable to advise the Council to approve it: some members were in favor, others threatening to abstain in the event of a vote and several suggesting other options, including that, as an intermediate step, the General Assembly would approve a resolution by which Palestine would become an observer State. Until today.

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