Chief Palestinian Negotiator, member of the executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, urged the French government to reconsider its decision to abstain from UN vote on full Palestinian membership.Dr. Erekat told the French Press Agency that the Palestinian Authority is calling on France and all permanent member countries at the Security Council, to vote for the Palestinian bid.
He also stated that the P.A. is also calling on all countries that decided to vote against the bid to change their decisions and vote for it.
Erekat said that “voting for recognizing Palestine as a full member at the U.N. is a vote for the peace process, and a vote to save the two–state solutions, supported by the entire world”.
The Palestinian official further stated that Israel is not serious in peace talks, and is only interested in changing facts of the ground, especially by its ongoing settlement construction and expansion activities in the occupied territories, including in occupied East Jerusalem.
On Thursday afternoon, France officially informed the U.N. Security Council member states of its decision during a meeting of the admissions committee that discusses new United Nations membership applications.
Also, a British Diplomat at the U.N. delivered a similar statement during a closed-door meeting at the U.N., a U.N. diplomat told the CNN.
The United Nations Security Council will be meeting on November 11th, and will be discussing whether to admit Palestine as a member state, or not.
The membership application was filed to the U.N. in September by Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who received an overwhelming support.
The CNN also reported that U.N. diplomats stated that the Palestinians will not be able to succeed in their bid, especially since the U.S, one of five permanent member countries, said it intends to use its Veto power against the bid.
Both Washington and Tel Aviv initiated an extensive international campaign to convince U.N. member states to vote against the bid so that the U.S. would not have to use its veto power against it.
Washington will not need to use its veto power if at least 9 of the 15 member countries at the U.N. Security Council vote against the bid.
