UN Security Council meeting in New York on the situation in Palestine and the Middle East (French)

The US State Department announced on Wednesday that Washington believes that a Palestinian state must be born in direct negotiations and not within the framework of the United Nations, after Palestine renewed its request for full membership in the United Nations.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, "This is something that must be done through direct negotiations between the two parties, and this is what we are working for at the present time, and not at the United Nations," without clarifying whether the United States intends to use its veto power. Against such a proposal.

Miller made his statements in response to questions about the Palestinians renewing their application for full membership in the United Nations yesterday, a process with uncertain results, but they consider it necessary in the face of the Israeli attack on Gaza.

Miller stressed that Washington is "actively committed", despite the war in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation, to the establishment of a Palestinian state whose establishment would be accompanied by "security guarantees" for Israel.

A letter from the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, seen by Agence France-Presse and transmitted according to established procedures to the UN Security Council, said: “Based on the instructions of the Palestinian leadership, I am honored to request that the UN Security Council consider again during April 2024” the application for membership. The full report was submitted by the authority in 2011, and the Council has not decided on it since then.

Non-member observer

Since the end of 2012, Palestine has enjoyed the status of a “non-member observer state in the United Nations.”

Sweden became the first country in the European Union to recognize the "State of Palestine" in 2014, after the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus did so before joining the European Union.

Stockholm's decision, taken at a time when efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appeared to be at a complete dead end, led to years of stormy relations with Israel.

Pedro Sanchez also issued a joint declaration with his counterparts from Ireland, Malta and Slovenia, in which they said they were “ready to recognize Palestine” if “conditions are appropriate.”

In turn, Belgian Foreign Minister Hajja Habib confirmed on Wednesday that her country's recognition of the State of Palestine is something that it will take into consideration "when the time is right."

French President Emmanuel Macron took a step forward in February, saying that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state “is not taboo for France.”

Source: Al Jazeera + French