The president of the United Nations Security Council, Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN, Nawaf Salam, declared that the panel specializing in the bids of new members for inclusion in the United Nations will hold a meeting at the UN Security Council headquarters in New York on Friday, one week after the Palestinian Authority submitted its bid for membership.During Friday’s meeting, the panel will be discussing the Palestinian bid for full membership at the UN.
“If there are no objections, I will transfer the bid to the membership nominee committee,” Salam said, adding “I will close the session if there are no objections involving the Palestinian application.”
The Palestinian minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Riyad Al-Maliki, announced Thursday that the Palestinian Authority had secured the votes of 8 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council to support the Palestinian bid for statehood.
“We are keeping working hard to secure the 9th vote for the Palestinian bid,” he said, stating that “There are two possibilities: Colombia or Bosnia & Herzegovina.”
Dr. Al-Maliki said the members that plan to vote for the Palestinian bid are: Russia, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon, Nigeria and Gabon.
The meeting will be issuing a draft resolution, including recommendations regarding the Palestinian bid, and the panel will hand over the draft to the UN Security Council. If the Security Council agrees on Palestine’s full membership at the international body, the Palestinian application will be passed to the UN General Assembly, in which 193 member states will be voting on the application.
In order for Palestine to be accepted as a permanent member at the UN, two-thirds of the UN General Assembly members participating in the vote need to vote in favor of the bid. Previously, the Palestinian Authority stated that they have secured the support of 145 member states.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council decided during a meeting to transmit the Palestinian bid to the specialized panel for new members at the UN. The panel includes all 15 Security Council member states which are: the United States, Russian Federation, France, China, the United Nations, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, India, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria.
