Ramallah: Bosnia and Herzegovina and Colombia are currently under pressure to oppose the Palestinian membership bid at the UN Security Council, with Palestinians holding several meetings with them to secure their votes, said a top Palestinian official.

"We have and we are contacting Bosnia and Herzegovina and Colombia and holding several meetings with them to convince them to vote in favour of the Palestinian membership," Hanna Amirah, a member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), told Gulf News.

"The Russian Federation has given us solid promises that it will get involved in convincing Bosnia and Herzegovina to vote in favour," he said.

The Palestinian full UN membership will be recommended if at least nine of the 15 Council members vote in favour of the resolution. "If we secure that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Colombia vote in favour of the resolution, we will have the necessary nine votes, and most probably we will," he said.

Dilemma

"Bosnia and Herzegovina and Colombia are in a dilemma due to the huge pressure on them," he said. "The Palestinians have secured the rest of the Council member states favourable to the Palestinian cause," said Amirah.

He stressed that two UN Security Council permanent members: Russia and China will vote in favour of the resolution.

"The US does not want to isolate itself and held the entire blame for failing the Palestinian UN bid," he said. "The US is currently convincing France and Britain to veto the resolution to make it a triple veto," he said.

Promises

"We have promises from France and Britain, however, not to veto the resolution, but those countries' have not announced their decisions yet," he stressed.

Amirah said that the Palestinian request for statehood is now ready and endorsed by the Arab League Peace Process Follow Up Committee which has held its final meeting, where the Arabs will have a unified position at the UN.

He explained that as per the official procedures of the UN, once the Palestinian request is submitted to the UN Secretary-General, it will be referred to a technical committee comprising representatives of all council members for consideration. "The committee should submit its opinion within a maximum of 35 days, but this application can be moved quickly at the Security Council to be discussed," he said. "We have promises from certain countries that the request will be instantly moved and discussed at the council without taking much time," he said.

Amirah said that the Palestinians are working on three different fronts including the securing of nine votes; the Security Council request not to contradict with approaching the UN General Assembly and that the request submitted to the UN Secretary General to be referred to both the Security Council and the General Assembly. "Once the request is discussed at the Security Council, it will be discussed with the General Assembly," he stressed.