Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News

Exclusive Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News
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Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour attending a UN Security Council meeting in 2018. (AFP file)
Exclusive Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News
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Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour (C) attends the UN Security Council emergency session on Israel-Gaza conflict in New York City. (AFP)
Exclusive Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News
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Palestinians protests against Israeli abuses outside the UNWRA office in Gaza City on September 19, 2022. (AFP)
Exclusive Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News
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A member of Israeli security forces stands guard as Palestinians arrive in large numbers at the Qalandia checkpoint in the West Bank on April 27, 2022. (AFP)
Exclusive Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News
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Israeli police carry a wounded young Palestinian demonstrator at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on April 22, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 21 November 2022

Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News

Palestine has ‘natural, legal right’ to become full state member of UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour tells Arab News
  • Says Palestine would have been a member state a long time ago if the US did not have the veto power to stop it
  • Expresses gratitude to Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, for remaining united in support of Palestine at UN

NEW YORK CITY: 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 members of the UN Security Council to push for a resolution to elevate Palestine from its current status as an observer state at the global organization and recognize it as a full member.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News at the UN headquarters in New York, 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.”

Mansour said he has already gained enough support from members of the Security Council — including votes from Ireland, Albania and Norway — to secure its recommendation that Palestine be granted full state membership in the General Assembly.

Paulina Kubiak Greer, a spokesperson for the president of the General Assembly, told Arab News: “Article 4 of the UN Charter states that membership is a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. The General Assembly cannot decide on membership without the recommendation from the Security Council.”




Paulina Kubiak Greer, spokesperson for the president of the UN General Assembly. (UN photo)

Although granting full state membership status to Palestine would be consistent with the current US administration’s pursuit of “practical measures” to achieve a two-state solution, Mansour said Washington “is not enthusiastic about the idea.”

He said: “I told Linda (Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN), in more than one meeting, that if you do not like our idea, put on the table your alternative — a practical idea to shield and protect the two-state solution. But if you tell me you don’t like my idea, and you are not proposing an alternative solution, that is unacceptable.”




US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council. (AFP file)

Mansour believes the reticence in Washington relates to its preference for a “negotiated two-state solution,” an avenue Mansour said the Palestinians continue to support.

Palestinians “have no objection to negotiating with anyone, including the Israeli side — (provided the talks are conducted) on the basis of international law and the global consensus, including the Arab Peace Initiative — if the Israeli side is willing to do so.”

The Arab Peace Initiative is a Saudi-initiated proposal for an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict that was initially endorsed by the Arab League in 2002. It includes the offer of normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories, a “just settlement” of the Palestinian refugee issue, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mansour thanked Arab countries for remaining united in support of Palestine at the UN and never failing to vote in its favor. In particular, he highlighted the role played by Saudi Arabia.




Members of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee meeting in New York on Sept. 21, 2022, on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly. (SPA file photo)

“Saudi Arabia has a very, very important and powerful position,” he said. “We are grateful for the fact that Saudis do not deviate from supporting the rights of the Palestinian people. And they don’t deviate from honoring and respecting the Arab Peace Initiative, which they launched 20 years ago at the Arab summit in Beirut.

“We are also grateful for Saudi when they very clearly and courageously, at the Jeddah summit, in the presence of President Joe Biden, said that the Palestine question is a central question for Arab countries and that the Arab Peace Initiative is still honored and respected.

“These things to us constitute the essence of the Arab position (and) we expect from them no less than that.”

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian National Authority, has lately stepped up the push for full state membership status at the UN. Since the summer he has raised the matter with French President Emmanuel Macron and King Abdullah II of Jordan, and with Biden during the US president’s visit to Bethlehem in July.




Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas shows a photo as he speaks at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2022 in New York. (Getty Images via AFP/file)  

“The key to peace and security in our region begins with recognizing the state of Palestine,” Abbas told Biden at the time.

The Palestinian National Authority first applied for full membership status of the UN in 2011. It argued that the organization in 1947 adopted Resolution 181, which partitioned Palestinian land into two states, an act that effectively served as “the birth certificate for Israel.” It said the UN now has a “moral and historic duty” to salvage the chances for peace by issuing a similar birth certificate for Palestine.

The matter was referred to the Committee on the Admission of New Members for consideration but opposition at the time from the administration of US President Barack Obama prevented the committee from issuing a unanimous recommendation to the Security Council.

In 2012, a majority in the General Assembly voted to elevate the status of Palestine from a mere “entity” to that of an observer state, the same status granted to the Vatican; 138 countries voted in favor, nine against and 41 abstained.




Delegates cheer as PA President Mahmoud Abbas (upper photo) addresses the UN General Assembly before voting to upgrade Palestine to non-member observer state on Nov. 29, 2012 in New York. (Getty Images/AFP)

The vote was largely symbolic, as observer states cannot vote on General Assembly resolutions, but it nevertheless led to the Palestinians joining more than 100 international treaties and conventions as a state party.

These have allowed Palestinians, Mansour said, “to be part of humanity,” taking their place in the world and sharing in its concerns.

US authorities have sought to convince the Palestinians not to go through with their efforts to gain full membership of the UN, repeating their same arguments that it would merely circumvent proper peace negotiations with Israel.

“The US has been clear about our opposition to the Palestinian bid for full membership at the UN,” a US official told Arab News. “There are no shortcuts to Palestinian statehood outside direct negotiations between the parties.

“The US is focused on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis closer together in pursuit of this goal of two states, for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security. The US remains committed to a two-state solution. As President Biden said, alongside President Abbas in July, ‘The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own that’s independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous.’




US President Joe Biden (L) is received by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (R) during a welcome ceremony in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on July 15, 2022. (AFP file)

“The only realistic path to a comprehensive and lasting peace that ends this conflict permanently is through direct negotiations between the parties. As we have seen, those conditions are not yet present for direct negotiations. That said, US efforts are aimed at setting such conditions.”

It is a familiar argument that has been applied by the US on previous occasions when the UN adopted measures seen as advancing Palestinian representation on the world stage. Washington described the 2012 resolution granting Palestine observer status as “unfortunate and counterproductive” and a “grand pronouncement that would soon fade.”

In the same vein, Washington also opposed a 2015 decision to allow Palestinians to fly their flag at the UN headquarters in New York. And when Palestine was admitted to UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in 2011, the US Congress cut all US funding for the agency. Former President Donald Trump went so far as to withdraw the US entirely from UNESCO in 2019, accusing it of anti-Israel bias.




Palestinians call for an end to Israeli atrocities during a demonstration next to the UNESCO headquarters in Gaza City on May 16, 2018. (AFP file)

Although a Democrat-controlled Congress recently authorized a US return to UNESCO, it was on the condition that Palestine is not granted membership of other UN bodies. US lawmakers have even enacted legislation prohibiting funding for any UN agency that admits Palestine as a member.

“That offensive reaction means that even the small steps that Palestinians are creating with this initiative, this momentum … I don’t want to say they are afraid of our initiative but they take it seriously,” said Mansour.

After experiencing years of alienation during the Trump administration, Mansour expressed gratitude to the Biden White House for reinstating humanitarian funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and taking “practical steps” toward achieving peace.




Palestinians receive their monthly food rations from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on June 14, 2022. It was defunded during the term of US President Donald Trump but Joe Biden restored support when he became president. (AFP)

But he lamented what he described as Biden’s reluctance to deal with the political dimensions of the issue, given that a number of promises, such as the reopening of the US consulate in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Liberation Organization office in Washington, remain unfulfilled.

“While we appreciate the economic and humanitarian help, (we) need a political process to move (toward) the end of this occupation and actualize the global consensus over the two-state solution,” said Mansour.

“With regard to that issue, we don’t see progress and they keep telling us to wait. We’ve been waiting since the Nakba, almost 75 years. Waiting since the occupation of 1967, which is almost 55 years. How much longer do you want us to keep waiting?

“If (the Americans) did not have the veto power to stop us, then we would have been a member state a long time ago.”

 


US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran

US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran
Updated 01 April 2023

US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran

US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran

WASHINGTON: The United States is seeking to keep more than 1 million rounds of ammunition the US Navy seized in December as it was in transit from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to militants in Yemen, the Justice Department said on Friday.
“The United States disrupted a major operation by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle weapons of war into the hands of a militant group in Yemen,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The Justice Department is now seeking the forfeiture of those weapons, including over 1 million rounds of ammunition and thousands of proximity fuses for rocket-propelled grenades.”
US naval forces on Dec. 1 intercepted a fishing trawler smuggling more than 50 tons of ammunition rounds, fuses and propellants for rockets in the Gulf of Oman along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen, the Navy said.
They found more than 1 million rounds of 7.62mm ammunition; 25,000 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition; nearly 7,000 proximity fuses for rockets; and over 2,100 kilograms of propellant used to launch rocket propelled grenades, it said.
The forfeiture action is part of a larger government investigation into an Iranian weapons-smuggling network that supports military action by the Houthi movement in Yemen and the Iranian regime’s campaign of terrorist activities throughout the region, the Justice Department said.
The forfeiture complaint alleges a sophisticated scheme by the IRGC to clandestinely ship weapons to entities that pose grave threats to US national security.


Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria

Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria
Updated 01 April 2023

Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria

Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria

Russia has protested to the American-led coalition against the Daesh militant group about “provocative actions” by US armed forces in Syria, Tass news agency said on Friday.
Tass cited a senior Russian official as saying the incidents had occurred in the northeastern province of Hasakah. The United States has been deploying troops in Syria for almost eight years to combat Daesh.
Hundreds of Daesh fighters are camped in desolate areas where neither the coalition nor the Syrian army exert full control. Russia — which together with Turkiye is carrying out joint patrols in northern Syria — has agreed special zones where the coalition can operate.
But Russian Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, told Tass that US forces had twice been spotted in areas which lay outside the agreed zones.
“Provocative actions on the part of US armed forces units have been noted in Hasakah province ... the Russian side lodged a protest with the coalition,” he said, without giving details of timing.
Last week the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups that it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor at a coalition base in the northeast of the country.
Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, tipping the balance in President Bashar Assad’s favor. Moscow has since expanded its military facilities in the country with a permanent air base and also has a naval base.


Love abounds as Copts join and assist Muslims for iftar in Egypt

Love abounds as Copts join and assist Muslims for iftar in Egypt
Updated 01 April 2023

Love abounds as Copts join and assist Muslims for iftar in Egypt

Love abounds as Copts join and assist Muslims for iftar in Egypt
  • Pope Tawadros II praised for providing food to the poor
  • Hundreds of meals distributed to homes and hospitals

CAIRO: With the advent of Ramadan, several Christian churches and organizations have organized Rahman or Mercy banquets for Muslims at iftar, to foster a spirit of tolerance and unity.

Maya Morsi, president of Egypt’s National Council for Women, praised Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, for providing food to help the poor, and his supervision of the packing of the cartons that are titled “Love Never Falls.”

Morsi posted on her Facebook account, saying: “Love never falls. Pope Tawadros II helps collect charitable donations for distribution in Ramadan. We are in a bond until doomsday.”

Last week, Pope Tawadros II participated in the preparation of Ramadan food aid as part of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s charity drive, through several programs and institutions affiliated with the Pontifical Office for Projects.

In the city of Luxor, in southern Egypt, a number of Copts set up daily Ramadan iftar tables.

Romani Ramzi Ajaibi, one of the organizers of the iftar project, said 10 years ago he started with a number of his brothers and other relatives to provide food for iftar, a tradition initiated by his father.

Ajaibi told Arab News: “The organization of the banquet confirms that the Coptic and the Muslim are brothers in one homeland. Everyone is currently fasting, with some minor differences between them.”

He explained: “The iftar banquet table contains all meals daily, including meat and poultry, and professional chefs working in hotels are used to prepare it. And more than 500 meals are provided for hospital patients.”

Bishoy Ramzy, another organizer, told Arab News: “There are other meals that are distributed to the poor daily and delivered to their homes by those who are ashamed to go to the iftar banquet table (to take charity).”

Ramzi stressed: “I believe that compassion and cohesion between Muslims and Christians only generate love among all.”

In Alexandria Governorate, in northern Egypt, the Church of the Virgin Mary and Pope Kyrillos VI in the El-Zawaida area, east of Alexandria, distributed 250 bags of Ramadan necessities to the most vulnerable families in the Montazah neighborhood.

Yones Adeeb, pastor of the Catholic Church in Hurghada, a Red Sea Governorate city, also joined Muslims for iftar, taking food to people on the streets. Adeeb participates regularly in Islamic celebrations, including distributing sweets on Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

Adeeb said: “This year, we prepared Ramadan bags to distribute to the needy, as the blessed month of Ramadan carries spiritual and humanitarian meanings.”

“I always share iftar with our Muslim brothers on the first days of Ramadan.”

 


UN raises quarter of $1bn Turkiye quake funds target

Ozlem Yildirim with her child at a banana plantation in the quake-hit town of Samandag, southern Turkey, where she lives. (AFP)
Ozlem Yildirim with her child at a banana plantation in the quake-hit town of Samandag, southern Turkey, where she lives. (AFP)
Updated 01 April 2023

UN raises quarter of $1bn Turkiye quake funds target

Ozlem Yildirim with her child at a banana plantation in the quake-hit town of Samandag, southern Turkey, where she lives. (AFP)
  • Saudi Arabia, US, Kuwait, European Commission, UN’s emergency fund CERF top five donors
  • Donors pledged 7 billion euros to help Turkiye and Syria recover, although Ankara has set the bill for rebuilding at well over 10 times that figure

GENEVA: The UN said on Friday it had so far raised a quarter of the money it needs for relief work in Turkiye after the earthquake that killed more than 55,000 people.

Donors have so far contributed $268 million to the $1 billion flash appeal issued by the UN following the 7.8-magnitude quake on Feb. 6 and its aftershocks that devastated swaths of southeast Turkiye and parts of war-torn Syria.
The UN humanitarian agency’s spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva that the initial emergency phase had ended.
“Now we are involved in the humanitarian emergency phase, where we look at what the survivors need,” he added.
On Feb. 16, the UN launched an appeal for $1 billion to help more than 5 million people in Turkiye during the first three months after the quake.
The US, Kuwait, the European Commission, the UN’s emergency fund CERF and Saudi Arabia are currently the top five donors.
Laerke said UN and other humanitarian agencies had reached more than 4.1 million people with basic household items and clothes.
Of those, almost 3 million have been reached with emergency food aid.

HIGHLIGHT

The 7.8-magnitude quake on Feb. 6, and its aftershocks, killed more than 55,000 people and left many more in dire conditions.

And 1.6 million have received water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance.
The EU hosted a conference in Brussels earlier this month to raise money for reconstruction, the longer third phase.
Donors pledged 7 billion euros to help Turkiye and Syria recover, although Ankara has set the bill for rebuilding at well over 10 times that figure.
The UN has a twin flash appeal for Syria to help survivors over the first three months, which has raised $364 million of the $398 million requested.
Some 1,177 UN relief trucks have so far entered northern Syria from Turkiye.
“Since last month, we and our partners have provided shelter support, including tents, to nearly 100,000 people.
“Partners have also distributed more than 850,000 ready-to-eat food rations and over 1 million hot meals to people across affected areas,” Laerke said.
Meanwhile, the earthquake damaged more than 20 percent of Turkiye’s agricultural production, the UN’s food agency said.
The Food and Agriculture Organization said initial assessments in Turkiye revealed “severe damage to agriculture, including crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as rural infrastructure in affected areas.”
“The earthquake severely impacted 11 key agricultural provinces affecting 15.73 million people and more than 20 percent of the country’s food production,” it said in a statement.
“The earthquake-affected region, known as Turkiye’s ‘fertile crescent’, accounts for nearly 15 percent of agricultural GDP and contributes to almost 20 percent of Turkiye’s agrifood exports.”
It estimated the quake had caused $1.3 billion in damage, through the destruction of infrastructure, livestock and crops, and $5.1 billion in losses to the agricultural sector.
When the earthquake hit, buildings collapsed, crops were damaged and animals were killed, but the resulting devastation also created shortages of barns, food and vaccines for livestock that survived.

 


After being fired, Israel’s defense minister caught in limbo

Yoav Gallant. (AP)
Yoav Gallant. (AP)
Updated 01 April 2023

After being fired, Israel’s defense minister caught in limbo

Yoav Gallant. (AP)
  • Gallant is still on the job as his boss Prime Minister Netanyahu never even sent him a formal termination letter

JERUSALEM: Five days ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire his defense minister set off a wave of spontaneous mass protests and a general strike that threatened to paralyze the country, forcing the Israeli leader to suspend his divisive plan to overhaul the judicial system.
But Netanyahu never even sent Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant a formal termination letter, a spokesperson for Netanyahu said. As of Friday, Gallant — whose criticism of Netanyahu’s planned judicial changes led to his dismissal — was still on the job. Gallant’s aides said it was business-as-usual at the Defense Ministry.
As local media this week crackled with reports of Netanyahu considering whether to replace Gallant with stalwarts of his right-wing Likud party, Gallant remained in limbo — and even so, the public face of his ministry.

SPEEDREAD

Gallant greeted the Azerbaijani foreign minister, toured two military bases and attended Tuesday’s security Cabinet meeting this week.

He greeted the Azerbaijani foreign minister, toured two military bases and attended Tuesday’s security Cabinet meeting this week.
On Thursday, Gallant attended a celebration ahead of the Jewish Passover holiday with the director of the Shin Bet security service, his office said, releasing a photo of him smiling beside Director Ronen Bar.
“We have a duty to calm the spirits in Israeli society and maintain an inclusive and unifying discourse,” Gallant said at the holiday toast.
The questions swirling around the fate of Israel’s crucial Defense Ministry — which maintains Israel’s 55-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and contends with threats from Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and the Gaza Strip’s militant Hamas rulers — reflects the tensions tearing at Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition after one of the most dramatic weeks for Israel in decades.
It’s also a leadership test of Israel’s longest-serving premier as he governs a deeply polarized country and faces charges of corruption.
Netanyahu’s decision to pause plans to weaken Israel’s Supreme Court in the face of the country’s biggest protest movement underscores the complex juggling act that the prime minister must perform in holding together his governing coalition, experts say.
On one hand, Netanyahu must please his far-right and religiously conservative coalition partners — supporters of the judicial overhaul — who vaulted him to power even as he stands trial.
But he also must weigh grave concerns over the plan from Israel’s closet ally, the United States, as well as anger from more moderate politicians and, significantly, dissent from within Israel’s military over fears the national crisis could threaten the country’s security. A growing number of military reservists had declined to report for duty in protest of the measures, raising concerns that the crisis could harm Israel’s military capabilities.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment further on Gallant’s unresolved situation. But the conflicting pressures have resulted in an impasse over Gallant’s future and who serves as defense minister.
“Netanyahu has extremists surrounding him and they want to see blood, they want to see Gallant removed,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Those politicians include far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezazel Smotrich, who received outsized power in coalition deals that persuaded them to join the government.