General Assembly President: US Could Veto Palestinian State

[udun]

General Assembly President: US Could Veto Palestinian Statehood

Obama Condemns Calls for Palestinian Statehood as Unrealistic

Efforts by the Palestinian Authority to establish a Palestinian state will be entirely impossible, according to UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss, who insists that the general assembly cannot recognize a nation if any member of the UN Security Council vetos it.

This makes such efforts a waste of time, as the United States holds a permanent veto power at the UNSC and would surely use it to block a Palestinian state. President Obama today condemned the notion of Palestinian statehood as entirely “unrealistic,” saying it could only become one if Israel agrees.

Which given the current state of affairs in Israel is likely impossible. Though some members of the current right-far-right government have suggested tepid support for a Palestinian state (with no military or borders), a number of officials also reject the notion on general principle.

Indeed, a number of Israeli and US attorneys are also arguing that a Palestinian state is illegal under any conditions. They are claiming that the League of Nations deal in 1922 gave Israel legal control over massive amounts of territory, including all of the lands conquered in 1967. They also claim the 1949 Armistice did not preclude Israel conquering additional territory and that the “1967 borders do not exist and have never existed.”

The United Nations imprimatur is assumed by many nations to be needed for statehood, but the ability of nations to marshal a veto against new states has left a growing number of de facto nation-states operating outside of this mechanism, and with no hope of securing UN membership. In addition to blocking Palestine, the United States has also vowed to block the UN recognition of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which seceded from Georgia in the wake of the brief Russo-Georgian War. Russia, for its part, is also blocking the recognition of Kosovo.

Source: antiwar.com

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'Obama trying to head off trainwreck at UN in September'
Outgoing U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell tells Charlie Rose that the UN recognizing a Palestinian state would be 'very harmful for Israel, for the U.S., and not good for the peace process.'

By Haaretz Service

Outgoing U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell told Charlie Rose in a PBS interview on Thursday that U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to head off a "train wreck" at the United Nations this September, when the Palestinians plan on bringing the issue of an independent state to the General Assembly.

"The United Nations does not have the authority to recognize states," Mitchell said. Recognition of a state, especially if passed by an overwhelming margin at the UN, would be "very harmful for Israel, for the United States, and not good for the peace process."

The United States has consistently expressed the opinion that bringing the issue of a Palestinian state to the UN is harmful to the peace process with Israel. Despite this, several countries, have already granted recognition to an independent Palestinian state of their own accord.

In a recent meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying "We do not think that unilateral steps are helpful."

The way the Middle East conflict is going to end, Mitchell said is "by an agreement in which the United States plays an active and substantive role but an agreement that will be owned by, be the property of, and be the result of negotiation by Israelis and Palestinians."

The envoy also spoke about the recent reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, saying "obviously we hope that Abbas and the Fatah Party will win the election, not Hamas."

"We are for democracy," Mitchell said, but warned that "if Hamas is a participant in that government and they stick to their current position" the U.S. would be cut off.

"What President Abbas has for many years stood for [is] non-violence and negotiation as the way to achieve the proper result," Mitchell said. "He's the person that Israel and the United States and others should be empowering to try to get him back into the talks on a basis that will permit an agreement to be reached."

haaretz.com

[udun]

So after 63 years of Palestinian suffering, it came down to US President lobbying the rest of the world to deny the long-suffering Palestinian people for their own state

[hanad_mn]

saying it could only become one if Israel agrees.

bull shit.