The UN General Assembly will consider today the Palestinian Authority's bid to have its status in the UN upgraded to state recognition, forcing world governments to pick a side on the contentious and divisive issue.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is travelling to New York on Thursday to oppose any "unilateral" move by the Palestinians for statehood, and will present the country's concerns directly before the world body.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada favours a two-state solution in the region.
"That will not be accomplished in reality unless and until the Palestinian Authority returns to the negotiating table and is able to get a comprehensive peace agreement with Israel.… So we encourage them to do that and we will not support any other shortcuts or any other ways of trying to arrive at that solution without such a peace agreement," he told reporters on Wednesday.
The UN General Assembly is expected to vote Thursday afternoon on whether to upgrade the Palestinians' status from a non-member observer entity to a non-member observer state. While it can't confer full-member status, the recognition would be seen as a major symbolic victory.
Israel says bid won't help Palestinian quest for homeland
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally asked the UN a year ago to consider his application for full membership. That request has been blocked by the Security Council, but Thursday's resolution is expected to pass.
Unlike the Security Council, in the General Assembly, the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations, no one country has veto power. Most of the General Assembly's 193 member states are sympathetic to the Palestinians and this resolution to raise its status only requires a majority vote for approval.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday the UN General Assembly's recognition of an independent state of Palestine will not advance the Palestinians' quest for a homeland. (Gali Tibbon, Pool/Associated Press) However, a country's vote in favour of the status change does not automatically imply its individual recognition of a Palestine state, something that must be done bilaterally.
The Palestinians say they need UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem to be able to resume negotiations with Israel. The non-member observer state status could also open the way for possible war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
The Palestinian Authority representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour, says he expects Thursday to be a historic day for Palestinians and for the UN. He says he is relatively confident the Palestinians have enough support in the General Assembly.
"What we are doing is honourable, is legal, is political, is multilateral, is democratic," he said.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that if the Palestinians are recognized as a non-member observer state in the UN General Assembly, it would not advance their quest for a homeland.
Netanyahu said the Palestinians will not win a state until they recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, declare an end to their conflict with the Jewish state and agree to security arrangements that protect Israel.
France, China to pledge support
The United States is also sharply opposed to the resolution.
"No one should be under any illusion that this resolution is going to produce the results that the Palestinians claim to seek, namely to have their own state, living in peace next to Israel," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
France, meanwhile, says it will back the Palestinian bid, as will China and a host of other nations.
Britain has said it will support the bid, provided that the Palestinians refrain from accessing the ICC, where they could challenge Israel over settlement building.
However, Mansour, said: "I don't believe that we are going to be rushing on the second day to join everything related to the United Nations, including the ICC."
With files from the CBC's Tom Parry, David Common and The Associated PressAnda sedang membaca artikel tentang
UN votes today on Palestinian bid for state recognition
Dengan url
http://topstorinfo.blogspot.com/2012/11/un-votes-today-on-palestinian-bid-for.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
UN votes today on Palestinian bid for state recognition
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
UN votes today on Palestinian bid for state recognition
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar