Making Palestine full UN member a ‘practical’ step

Agencies | New York

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Granting Palestine full state membership status at the UN would be a “practical” step that could preserve the two-state solution and help reinvigorate the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, according to Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN.

Mansour initiated consultations this year with UN Security Council members to push for a resolution elevating Palestine from its current status as an observer state at the organisation and recognise it as a full member.

Mansour, whose official title is Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, said his initiative is anchored in Palestine’s “natural and legal right to become a full member in (the) UN system.”

The quest for statehood is all the more urgent, he said, amid Israeli attempts to unilaterally undermine the prospect of a reasonable solution that can deliver an independent Palestinian state, by “creating not only a one-state reality (but) an apartheid reality.”