United Nations: United States ambassador Susan Rice objected on Wednesday to the Palestine’s latest bid to capitalise on their upgraded UN status when their foreign minister spoke at the Security Council while seated behind a nameplate that read ‘State of Palestine’.
It was the first Palestinian address to the Security Council since the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on November 29 to upgrade the Palestinians from UN observer to non-voting member state.
Rice said that the US does not recognise the General Assembly vote in November “as bestowing Palestinian ‘statehood’ or recognition.”
“Only direct negotiations to settle final status issues will lead to this outcome,” Rice said. “Therefore, in our view, any reference to the ‘State of Palestine’ in the United Nations, including the use of the term ‘State of Palestine’ on the placard in the Security Council or the use of the term ‘State of Palestine’ in the invitation to this meeting or other arrangements for participation in this meeting, do not reflect acquiescence that ‘Palestine’ is a state.”
The UN General Assembly vote to upgrade the Palestinians’ status was important because it gave sweeping international backing to their demands for sovereignty over lands Israel occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem. But it did not actually grant independence to the 4.3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank, occupied east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
