Palestine Bid To Go to Committee

After considering the Palestinians’ statehood bid in a meeting on Monday, the U.N. Security Council will meet again on Wednesday morning, when it will send the bid to the admissions committee. According to Security Council President Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, the decision was made as required by Article 59 of the United Nations rules of procedure. The bid will most likely fail because of the American veto, which would block the bid for full membership. But the General Assembly could still upgrade the Palestinians from nonvoting observer “entity” to permanent observer “state.” The Palestinian Authority’s permanent observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said, "We hope that the Security Council will shoulder its responsibility and address this application with a positive attitude, especially since we have 139 countries that have recognized the state of Palestine so far, meaning more than two-thirds majority. We are ready to govern ourselves."