Palestinian UN envoy said his country would seek recognition of an independent Palestinian state, even if talks with the Zionist entity were ongoing.
Palestinian UN envoy said his country would seek recognition of an independent Palestinian state, even if talks with the Zionist entity were ongoing.
Riyad Mansour said the Palestinians were working on three separate tracks - restarting negotiations, completing the institutions for an independent state and gaining additional recognition for a Palestinian state.
"If we succeed in opening the door for negotiations, we're not going to stop from attaining what belongs to us as Palestinians in this General Assembly starting on Sept. 20," Mansour told reporters after the Security Council's monthly meeting on the Mideast. "Whether we succeed in the negotiations or we don't, the other two tracks are continuing."
UN membership requires a recommendation from the Security Council and approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries. This means there is no veto by the United States, Israel's closest ally.
Mansour predicted that more than two-thirds of the 192 UN member states would recognize an independent Palestinian state before September, up from "around 120" countries at present.
"Then, we want to know if there is a position in the Security Council of depriving us of our natural right and legal right to join the community of nations as a state," he said. "What would be the argument if more than two-thirds of nations are supporting us in that endeavor?"
He wouldn't say exactly what the Palestinians will do at the UN in September. Asked when the Palestinians would submit an application for UN membership to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he replied: "When we are ready."
Mansour said he believed that this year the Palestinians have been facing "a historic moment" because the international community "is sick and tired of the continuation of this conflict."
"No one can stop the wheel of history that is rotating," he said. "They want to see it ending - and it has to be ending on the basis of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital."
