UN panel holds first meeting on Palestinian statehood bid

[Jefferson23]

Lebanese UN Ambassador Nawaf Salam says committee unanimously agrees to continue meeting at expert level next week.

Published 21:00 30.09.11
Latest update 21:00 30.09.11

A UN Security Council panel on admitting new members to the United Nations met on Friday for the first time on the Palestinian bid to join the world body as Palestinians lobbied council members for support.

After the closed-door meeting of the council's standing committee on admitting new members, which comprises all 15 council members, Lebanese UN Ambassador Nawaf Salam said the committee unanimously agreed to continue meeting at the expert level next week.


It was the beginning of an assessment process that will pit the aid-dependent Palestinians against the United States and Israel, both of which vehemently oppose the membership bid, in trying to secure the support of undecided council members.

Salam has been the president of the Security Council this month. Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu takes over the chair on Saturday for the month of October, which means she will be overseeing the standing committee's work.

remainder: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-panel-holds-first-meeting-on-palestinian-statehood-bid-1.387455

[Jefferson23]

1. Source: UN won’t advance Palestinian statehood bid until diplomacy option exhausted

United Nations panel considering Palestinian application for full UN membership will drag on dealing with technical matters for several weeks, says a senior Western diplomat.

By Shlomo Shamir and Reuters

snip* According to diplomatic sources, the U.S. and its Western allies have a special interest in ‘dragging’ the debate on, with the purpose of giving their efforts vis-à-vis Israel and the Palestinian Authority a fighting chance.

“There is no announcement expected - either positive or negative – regarding the Palestinian application until the members of the Council feel that all of the diplomatic avenues to bring the sides to the negotiation table are exhausted,” a senior Western diplomat said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/source-un-won-t-advance-palestinian-statehood-bid-until-diplomacy-option-exhausted-1.387469

[Scurrilous]

2. Ask a think tank: Palestine’s U.N. application process

<snip>

"What is the process that the Palestinian request is going through at the UN? Why does it take two weeks for consideration? Who, specifically, is involved in the process? Are there formal meetings? And what will be considered as they deliberate?

Our answer comes from Jeffrey Laurenti, a former deputy director of the U.N. Foundation’s United Nations and Global Security initiative and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation:

The U.N. Charter provides that admission of a state to membership is “effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council” -- an inherently political decision. Where there is no controversy, the council breezes through the formalities, as happened in July with the newly independent South Sudan: review by the council’s Committee on the Admission of New Members (composed of all 15 states on the council), council endorsement of the application without a vote, and General Assembly concurrence the next day. When any of the council’s five permanent members objects, an application is stymied: The Soviet Union vetoed Italy’s application repeatedly from 1947 till the United States allowed East European states also to enter in 1955. The United States vetoed Vietnam’s application in 1976 (reversed by President Carter a year later).

The Security Council heard a public presentation by undersecretary-general Lynn Pascoe about Palestine’s application Sept. 27 and then adjourned for backroom “informal consultations” as the application was formally entrusted to the admissions committee. The public “debate” was essentially in all the General Assembly speeches by national leaders over the last two weeks, as every speaker addressed the Palestinian membership question.

The behind-the-scenes deliberations inside the Security Council are presumably over whether a stopgap formula can be found that restarts a peace negotiating track with Palestinian membership assured in a stipulated time frame. Absent such an alternative, we may expect a vote to recommend the application will fail for one of two reasons: either Palestine has not lined up nine votes on the council--the minimum required for adoption--to support its application; or, if it has, one of the permanent members has vowed to vote no.

Failure to win the needed votes in the Security Council would not necessarily leave the Palestinians empty-handed. They can still ask the General Assembly to recognize Palestine as an observer state within June 1967 borders--opening the door to membership in other U.N. agencies and its subscription to multilateral treaties--and they are believed to have far more than the 128 votes required for assembly approval."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think-tanked/post/ask-a-think-tank-palestines-un-application-process/2011/10/04/gIQAvm3QLL_blog.html

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Thanks for posting that. It's a good description of the process n/t

[Scurrilous]

4. Palestinian UN bid moves step further in UN Security Council

Membership committee says report on Palestinian membership application to be presented by early next month.

<snip>

"UN Security Council's membership committee said Tuesday a report of its discussion on the Palestinian application for membership would be ready next month.

The report would be presented to the 15-nation council in early November by Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu, who is chairing the committee in her role as president of the council in October.

European diplomats said the committee had finished discussion on the issue of a Palestinian state, the first of three criteria demanded by the council before it would grant UN membership to the Palestinians.

The committee will discuss in coming weeks the two other criteria, which call for a determination that it is a peaceful country making the application and that the country can fulfill obligations under the United Nations Charter, which is the world organization's constitution."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-un-bid-moves-step-further-in-un-security-council-1.390841

[Scurrilous]

Q+A: What comes next with Palestinian U.N. application?

<snip>

"The fate of the Palestinian application for membership in the United Nations might be decided on November 11, when the U.N. Security Council hopes to hold a final meeting to decide on its response.

The date represents a delay in dealing with the Palestinian application, submitted by President Mahmoud Abbas on September 23, amid hopes that indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks scheduled for next week could get a peace process off the ground.

Israel and the United States oppose the Palestinian bid for membership and recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, saying it is aimed at de-legitimizing Israel. They say the only way Palestine can get statehood is via peace talks with Israel.

Here are some questions and answers about how the Security Council and its committee on admitting U.N. member states will handle the application and the likely outcome."

more

[Scurrilous]

5. Delete: double post

:o

[azurnoir]

6. How long did it take for South Sudan to be admitted?

it should interesting to say the least if the UN refuses the Palestinians application to see why no to Palestine and yes to South Sudan