• United Nations

United Nations, April 18 (EFE).-

The United States vetoed on Thursday the Security Council resolution for the entry of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations, of which it is now only an observer state.

The resolution, introduced by Algeria on behalf of the UN-Arab Group, received 12 votes in favor, two abstentions from the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and a US vote against.

Even countries that had been previously ambivalent like France, Japan, Korea, and Ecuador ended up joining the Palestinian request.

The United States had previously announced that it would exercise this prerogative in favor of its ally, Israel, which is categorically opposed to a Palestinian state.

Although the resolution achieved the nine votes needed for adoption, only the veto stopped it, meaning it will now have to be debated in the General Assembly.

Since April 2022, following a reform of the UN’s rules of procedure, when a permanent member state exercises its veto right, the case must be debated in the General Assembly, where resolutions are non-binding but have a high symbolic value.

This reform aims to limit the use of the veto because it forces the permanent members who use it to offer explanations in the Assembly, before all member countries.

Since on Thursday the US stood alone in the Security Council in its opposition to the Palestinian state, its solitude will be even more evident in the Assembly, where 139 out of 193 countries already recognize Palestine.

This is the fourth time since Oct. 7 that the United States has used its veto in favor of Israel, having previously blocked three resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Thursday’s resolution had raised enormous expectations, and the foreign ministers of Spain, Iran, Algeria, Jordan, Malta, Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia, as well as representatives of sixty other countries, traveled to New York to support the Palestinian petition.

Like Israel, the United States argues that the declaration of a Palestinian state should be the result of bilateral negotiations with Israel, not imposed.

To this, the envoy of the Palestinian presidency, Ziad Abu Amr, recalled Thursday before the Security Council that this is how Israel entered the UN: as a result of a resolution, number 181, voted in 1948, and it has been a full member since. EFE

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