The Guyana government has said it welcomes the Palestinian president’s submission of his country’s application for membership of the United Nations. The government said on Saturday that that application, currently before the Security Council, is deserving of the most careful consideration.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
Having formally recognised the state of Palestine as a free, independent, and sovereign state based on its 1967 borders, Guyana has renewed its longstanding solidarity with the Palestinian people, and its support for their legitimate aspirations for a state of their own within the 1967 borders, a statement from the Guyana government has said.
“Guyana therefore stands ready to welcome Palestine as a member state of the United Nations. We note that a significant majority of the member states of the United Nations now recognise the state of Palestine.” The Guyana government further reaffirmed it’s support for the realisation of a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has been the internationally-agreed objective of successive Middle East peace negotiations.
“Guyana therefore urges the parties to return to the negotiating table, and (Guyana) renews its support for efforts by the international community to assist the parties to reach a just and lasting peace, with the people of Israel and Palestine living side by side in free and independent states within secure and internationally recognised borders.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations on Friday to recognise a state for his people, even though Israel still occupies its territory and the United States has vowed to veto the move.
Abbas handed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a letter from his country requesting full UN membership, which the Security Council must consider – although this may take some time.
“We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peacemaking,” Abbas said in a speech setting out his case to the UN General Assembly, which greeted him with a standing ovation.
His appeal to the council reflects a loss of faith after 20 years of failed peace talks sponsored by the United States, Israel’s main ally, and alarm at relentless Israeli settlement expansion eating into the land Palestinians want for a state. It also exposes Washington’s dwindling influence in a region shaken by Arab uprisings and shifting allegiances that have pushed Israel, for all its military muscle, deeper into isolation.
“Our people will continue their popular, peaceful resistance,” Abbas declared.
“This (Israeli settlement) policy will destroy the chances of achieving a two-state solution, and … threatens to undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority, and even end its existence.” It was the first time Abbas had spoken so starkly of the prospect of the PA’s demise, highlighting the predicament faced by a body set up as a state- in-waiting but now seen by its critics as a big municipality, managing the civilian affairs of the main Palestinian cities under Israeli occupation.
Abbas said on Saturday he expected the Security Council to finish debating his nation’s application for full United Nations membership in weeks, not months. Speaking to journalists on his plane back from the General Assembly in New York, where he presented the request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Abbas said Security Council members had initially appeared unenthusiastic about discussing the application. But the mood appeared to have changed after he made a speech to the General Assembly on Friday, pressing the case for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has said it will block the application.
Both governments say direct peace talks are the correct way for Palestinians to pursue peace. Washington holds veto power in the 15-member Security Council. “We are talking about weeks, not months,” Abbas said of the Security Council’s deliberations, adding that the process could take a maximum 35 days. Lebanon’s UN ambassador said the Security Council would convene on Monday to discuss Abbas’s application.
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