The Security Council committee evaluating the Palestinian Authority’s latest bid to become a full member of the United Nations has failed to reach a consensus after two rounds of closed-door discussions.
Malta’s Ambassador and Council President latest explained that they will be circulating a draft report in the days ahead that could need to be agreed on before the next steps in the process would become clear.
A similar effort in 2011 failed followed by a General Assembly decision to elevate Palestine to non-member observer state status without voting rights at the UN. Its latest membership application comes some six months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war which followed the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th.
New membership of the UN needs consensus within the membership committee and then formal approval of the Council before being affirmed by the General Assembly.
But given key countries’ consistent opposition to the move, including the veto-wielding United States, the process appeared predictable from the start.
Council President and Malta’s Ambassador Vanessa Frazier says, “There was no consensus in this second meeting of the committee however the majority were very clearly in favour to move on with membership. Many countries outlined the fact that Palestine fulfills all the criteria that are required under the Montevideo Convention and also under Article Four of the Charter. And some countries, when delved into, a lot of reasons why and explaining that, whereas others were more brief, simply stating that this is how they felt. So as the Chair of the Committee, we have decided, I have decided that I will be circulating our first draft of a report under a “no objection procedure” and we will see the next steps from there. So if there would be no objection and the report can be agreed to, then the next step could be to, hold a very short committee meeting to gavel the report.”
The SABC asked the Council President if, despite the lack of consensus, she expected a draft resolution on membership to be put to a vote in the Council next week after the Arab group indicated it would push for such a measure, led by Algeria.
“There is one country that has been saying this in public, and we have transparency. I mean, we have confidentiality. And what is stated in the committee itself, is that any country can table a resolution and has one. And I said this in public that they would be ready to do so I think you have your answer,” Frazier explains.
But that could run into opposition from at least one P5 member, namely the United States.
US Alternate Ambassador Robert A. Wood says, “I don’t know if there’s going to be a continuation of the meetings of the committee. Certain countries want to move forward to some sort of a Security Council resolution on this matter. They know the difficulties we would have with a Security Council resolution on this matter, as would some other countries. But they continue to press on, and you’ll have to ask them why they continue to do that when, they know that the council is you know, there’s no consensus in the council on.”
The Security Council must recommend an applicant state for membership through at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes – a decision that then needs to be affirmed by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly; a two-step process that appears likely to fall short in the Council given Washington’s publicly stated opposition to the move – outside of a bilateral process – agreed between Israel and Palestine.
