U.S. stops UN from recognizing a Palestinian state through membership

The United States on Thursday stopped the UN from recognizing a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny Palestinians full membership of the world body.

It vetoed a draft resolution that recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly that "the State of Palestine be admitted to membership" of the UN. Britain and Switzerland abstained, while the remaining 12 council members voted yes.

"The United States continues to strongly support a two-state solution. This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties," Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the U.S. veto in a statement as "unfair, unethical, and unjustified."

The Palestinian president said the move reveals a duplicitous U.S. foreign policy, which, on the one hand, claims to support the two-state solution and, on the other hand, prevents the UN from implementing the solution through its repeated use of the veto against Palestine and its legitimate rights.

Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council after the vote that, "The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination. We will not stop in our effort."

The Islamic resistance movement Hamas released a statement on Friday strongly condemning the United States' position in preventing recognition of a Palestinian state by using the veto.

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz commended the U. S. for casting the veto.

Addressing the 12 council members who voted in favor of the draft resolution, Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said, "It's very sad because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism even more and make peace almost impossible."

Fu Cong, China's new permanent representative to the UN, said the Chinese side is very disappointed with the U.S.'s decision to veto the draft resolution, adding that the dreams of the Palestinian people for decades have been ruthlessly shattered.

The Palestinian mission to the United Nations initially requested full UN member state status in 2011. Their first attempt failed because they did not receive the necessary minimum support of nine out of the 15 members of the Security Council.

Earlier this month, Palestine's renewed request for full member state status at the UN was evaluated by the UN Committee on the Admission of New Members. This revival of their membership bid in early April was supported by the 140 countries that recognize Palestine as an independent state. The Palestinian push for full UN membership came six months into the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 34,000 Palestinians have been killed so far.

At present, the Israeli army has mobilized military reinforcements, including artillery and armored personnel carriers, around Gaza in preparation for a possible ground attack on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, the Hebrew public radio reported.

Israel's repeated threats of a military operation in Rafah have faced opposition from its long-time supporters, including the United States.

However, Israel insists on invading the city, seeing it as the "last stronghold" of Hamas, which still has four military brigades stationed there that Israel seeks to dismantle.

(With input from agencies)