Washington: The US on Wednesday said that the Palestinian bid for a non-member observer states at the United Nations General Assembly would be a "mistake" and the move would not take them any closer to their goal of a statehood.
With majority of nations deciding to vote on the resolution in this regard at UN General Assembly, the United States appears to be isolated on this particular issue. "This resolution is not going to take them closer to statehood. It does nothing to get them closer to statehood and it may actually make the environment more difficult," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Earlier, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in New York in a last ditch US effort to convince him not to go ahead with his resolution.
"We've been consistent with the Palestinians that we oppose the observer state status in the General Assembly and this resolution. We made those points again. The Deputy Secretary also reiterated that no one should be under any illusion that this resolution is going to produce the results that the Palestinians claim to seek, namely to have their own state, living in peace next to Israel," she said.
"So obviously, we went up to make one more try to make our views known to President Abbas and to urge him to reconsider. He'll obviously make his own decisions, and he will do that in New York tomorrow," Nuland said.
The United States has conveyed to its international partners to vote against such a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly. "We have been very clear with our partners and with allies around the world that we intend to vote no, that we think that this is a mistake and makes our effort to try to get the parties back to the table more difficult. But obviously, every country will make their own decision," she said.
Last week, the grouping of India, Brazil and South Africa issued a statement in support of the UN resolution on Palestine. "This is a sovereign decision for each country to make based on their own policy. We're being very clear about where we stand, and we're also being very clear about our concerns about the impact on the peace process. We have many countries around the world outside of the region who come to us and say, do something, and we're saying that this could make it more difficult," Nuland said in response to a question.
Comments
0 comment