Security Council reviews Palestinian bid for full UN membership
The Palestinians, who have had observer status at the world body since 2012, have lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The United Nations Security Council said Monday that it would decide this month on the Palestinians' bid for full UN membership.
As the Gaza war rages on into its seventh month, the council's move was described as "historic" by the Palestinians, but angrily denounced by Israel.
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Maltese Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who holds the rotating presidency of the council, said that "the council has decided that this deliberation has to take place during the month of April."
Any request to become a UN member state must first pass through the Security Council -- where Israel's ally the United States wields a veto -- and then be endorsed by the General Assembly.
The Palestinians, who have had observer status at the world body since 2012, have lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood.
"Today is a historic moment," Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters Monday as the Security Council members, through an ad hoc committee on new membership, started the review process after the Palestinians last week relaunched their formal 2011 bid.
"All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations, to be treated as equals -- equals to other nations and states, to live in freedom and dignity, in peace and security, in our ancestral land," Riyad said in the General Assembly.
Observers though are predicting a veto from the United States, which has opposed Palestinian membership since 2011.
"Our position is a position that is known, it hasn't changed," Washington's UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. "But we are going to continue to find a path to bring a two-state solution."
Nevertheless, Malta's envoy Frazier said "there was value to the committee process" and that it would next meet on Thursday.
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