Palestine seeks full UN membership to protect 2-state solution

Ramallah: Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the UN, said that it is “making all possible efforts” to obtain full membership of the world body to protect the two-state solution.

The Palestinian mission “is working to convince the largest number of Arab and European countries in order for this endeavour not to be obstructed by the use of any veto”, Xinhua news agency quoted Mansour as saying to the official Voice of Palestine radio station.

President Mahmoud Abbas raised the issue with his US counterpart Joe Biden during the latter’s visit this month, and with French President Emmanuel Macron during their meeting in Paris last week, and with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman earlier this week, according to Mansour.

The threat “to the two-state solution is still growing with Israeli practices on the ground, especially the construction of hundreds of settlements in the Palestinian territories”, Mansour warned.

“If the UN Security Council approves the full membership of Palestine, it will be a major practical step in protecting the two-state solution to end the Israeli occupation,” the Palestinian envoy noted.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, sponsored by the US, broke down in 2014 largely because of their divisions on the settlement issues.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as the capital, while Israel claims the entire city as its eternal indivisible capital.