Palestinians still pursuing statehood recognition

JERUSALEM // The Palestine Liberation Organisation is still "actively pursuing" statehood recognition in the United Nations Security Council even though their bid failed last year, a Palestinian official said yesterday.

That insistence came hours after Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, told an audience in New York that the Palestinians had apparently decided that it was an inauspicious time to seek a vote, despite the Council's new members.

"The fact is, nobody knows for sure what the Palestinians will choose to do," Ms Rice added.

A Palestinian official told The National yesterday that the US envoy was incorrect and questioned her motives.

"I don't know what Mrs Rice is basing her calculations on, but it seems she just wants to further discourage us from pursuing this," said the official.

In the face of strong US and Israeli opposition, the PLO applied to the Council last September for UN membership.

But a UN committee to consider the application failed to reach consensus and the Palestinians have so far not requested a formal vote in the Council.

The official said it was too early to say how the Council's new non-permanent members who were elected to two-year terms in January - Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo - would vote.

"Nothing is set in stone because none of these countries have stated their positions on the matter," he said.

The five permanent members of the Council are the US, Russia, France, China and the UK.

Ms Rice's comments on the Palestinian statehood bid came in a speech to the American Jewish Committee, a non-governmental organisation.

"I presume that is because the Palestinians decided that, given the voting's likely outcome in the Council, it wasn't timely to push it to a vote," she said, explaining why she believed the Palestinian application remained in committee.

Asked whether the Council's new composition might change the Palestinians' prospects for success, Ms Rice said: "We are roughly in the same place now as we were last year, and potentially even in a better position."

Last year, the Palestinian delegation to the UN, led by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, failed to win the support of the nine members of Council for the statehood bid.

The US had already indicated it would veto the measure, but the Palestinians deemed the nine ballots - the number of votes normally needed for passage - a moral victory. They could only gain the support of eight Council members, however.

Diplomats told Reuters that situation remains the same, despite the changes in the Council's membership.

Newcomer Azerbaijan is thought likely to support the Palestinian application.

But Guatemala is unlikely to follow its predecessor, Brazil, in backing the Palestinians. The other three newcomers represent no change.

The Palestinians must decide whether to push for a Security Council vote anyway, take the issue to the UN General Assembly - which cannot confer membership but can upgrade their status as observers - or do nothing as contacts continue with Israel over a possible resumption of peace talks.

Ms Rice reaffirmed the US line that a Palestinian state would come only through direct negotiations with Israel, not "through a shortcut at the United Nations".

She stressed US backing at the UN for Israel.

Some US Republicans have accused the US president, Barack Obama, of being insufficiently supportive of Israel.

* Additional reporting by Reuters

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