Alwaght-Palestine has lashed out at the United Nations Security Council’s failure to approve a draft resolution demanding the recognition of an independent Palestinian state, Press TV reports.
In November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from "non-member observer entity" to "non-member observer state" despite strong opposition from Israel and the US.
Jordan has circulated this draft to the 15-member U.N. Security Council calling for Israeli regime occupation of Palestinian territory to end by November 2016 (Alwaght, 2014).
This n official bid for Palestinian statehood has been submitted to the UN Security Council, a diplomatic source told RT on Tuesday. Arab delegates in the UN are determined to hold the vote before the day’s end. The draft resolution calls for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the creation of a state by 2017. It would also mandate that Israel regime and Palestine return to pre-1967 borders. All 22 Arab delegations in the UN approve of the proposal.
France, Britain and Germany were discussing another proposal, but a senior American official said there was no consensus among them and America had not been asked to take a position.
According to Reuters, the resolution called for negotiations to be based on territorial lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. It also called for a peace deal within 12 months.
“They had ample opportunity to engage and be part of this effort,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, on Tuesday, adding, “How long do we have to wait?”
Earlier in the day, the Security Council did not adopt the draft resolution, which called for the recognition of an independent Palestinian state and the termination of the Israeli occupation.
The resolution needed to secure at least nine votes to be adopted by the 15-member Security Council. The European and African camps were split in the vote. France and Luxembourg voted in favor of the resolution, while Britain and Lithuania abstained. Among the Africans, Chad voted yes, while Rwanda and Nigeria abstained. However, it managed to garner only eight positive votes, as the US and Australia voted against the resolution and the UK, Rwanda, Nigeria, South Korea and Lithuania abstained.
According to the Guardian, Australia was one of only two nations, along with the United States, Israel’s closest ally voted against Palestinian Statehood. Australia’s relationship with Palestinians and the Arab world will be damaged by its decision to vote against a United Nations resolution that demanded the end of Israeli occupation within three years, the chief Palestinian representative in Canberra has warned.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had earlier warned that his administration would no longer deal with Israel if the bid failed.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power defended Washington's position against the draft in a speech to the 15-nation council by saying it was not a vote against peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The United States every day searches for new ways to take constructive steps to support the parties in making progress toward achieving a negotiated settlement," she said. "The Security Council resolution put before us today is not one of those constructive steps."
She said the text was "deeply imbalanced" and contained "unconstructive deadlines that take no account of Israel’s legitimate security concerns." To make matters worse, Power said, it "was put to a vote without a discussion or due consideration among council members."
She did not spare Israel either. "Today's vote should not be interpreted as a victory for an unsustainable status quo," Power said, adding that Washington would oppose actions by either side that undermined peace efforts, whether "in the form of settlement activity or imbalanced draft resolutions."
Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar, the sole Arab representative on the council, expressed regret that the resolution was voted down, while noting that she thought council members should have had more time to discuss the proposal.
The defeat of the resolution was not surprising. Washington, council diplomats said, had made clear it did not want such a resolution put to a vote before Israel regime's election in March.
The Palestinians, the diplomats said, insisted on putting the resolution to a vote despite the fact that it was clear Washington would not let it pass. Their sudden announcement last weekend that Ramallah wanted a vote before the new year surprised Western delegations on the council.
The Palestinians, frustrated by the lack of progress in peace talks, have sought to internationalize the issue by seeking U.N. membership and recognition of statehood via membership in international organizations.
