US blocks Palestine from becoming full member of the United Nations

The US vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Thursday that would have allowed Palestine to be admitted as a full member of the international body and effectively recognised its statehood.

The Biden administration said that while it supports Palestinian statehood, it could only be granted as part of wide-ranging peace negotiations with Israel.

“It remains the US view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” Vedant Patel, the State Department spokesman, told reporters earlier in the day.

The 15-member council voted on a draft resolution that would have recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations.”

Twelve members voted in favour, two abstained and the US vetoed. It needed at least nine votes to pass and no vetoes from the five permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

Currently, Palestine only holds non-member observer status, which it gained in 2012. That status is a de-facto recognition of statehood, but does not allow it to vote on UN resolutions.

The UN Security Council has in the past voted in favour of resolutions calling on Israel to withdraw from territory it has occupied since the 1967 war, which would form a future Palestinian state. But Israel has continued to build settlements on that land, making a two-state solution increasingly unviable.

The US has repeatedly used its veto to block resolutions critical of its close ally Israel, including numerous times against calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Ziad Abu