Spain, Ireland and other EU states to recognise Palestine on May 21

Muscat – Oman has welcomed a vote by an overwhelming majority of members of the United Nations General Assembly in favour of a resolution supporting Palestine’s right to obtain full membership of the United Nations.

UN General Assembly voted on Friday to support a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognising it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council ‘reconsider the matter favourably’.

The General Assembly stated that the global majority is appealing to the UN Security Council to recognise the State of Palestine, as the practical path that will pave the way for a two-state solution and establishment of a just peace in accordance with international resolutions.

The current resolution does not give Palestinians full membership, but recognises them as qualified to join, and it gives Palestine more participation and some rights within the UN General Assembly.

Memberships can only be decided by the UN Security Council, and last month, the US vetoed a bid for full membership.

The assembly adopted a resolution with 143 votes in favour and nine against – including the US and Israel – while 25 countries abstained.

“We want peace, we want freedom,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the assembly before the vote. “A ‘yes’ vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it is not against any state… It is an investment in peace.”

An application to become a full UN member first needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and then the General Assembly. If the measure is again voted on by the council, it is likely to face the same fate: a US veto.

Robert Wood, Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, told the General Assembly after the vote that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance a two-state solution.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said, “You have opened up the United Nations to modern-day Nazism. It makes me sick.”

Spain, Ireland and other EU states to recognise Palestine on May 21

Spain, Ireland and other EU member states plan to recognise the State of Palestine on May 21, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, has said.

In an interview on Spanish national radio RNE on Thursday, Borrell was asked to confirm reports in Irish media that Spain, Ireland and a handful of other EU member states could formally recognise the State of Palestine on May 21. Confirming the plans, he said that Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares had told him that May 21 was the proposed date.