>US urges Palestine to postpone UN petition

Mahmoud Abbas speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (AFP Photo / Stan Honda)

TAGS: Election, UN, Politics, USA, Israel

The US is pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) to delay its efforts on upgrading its UN membership in September until after the American presidential election, according to a senior Palestinian official.

“There are pressures from the United States and some Arab parties to delay the voting until after the United States presidential elections, due in November,”Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Saleh Raafat told Voice of Palestine radio.

On August 4, the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that the PA, which currently holds "observer" status at the UN, will ask to be upgraded to "non-member state" at the General Assembly meeting on September 27, at which President Mahmoud Abbas plans an address.

The PA has submitted a formal request to the United Nations in September 2011 to accept Palestine as a member state, a bid that has to be approved by the Security Council. So far, the UN has neither approved nor rejected the Palestinian petition, because it was never put to a vote in the UN Security Council, where Washington had threatened to veto it.

“The Palestinian people have no option but to resort to popular resistance and turn to international agencies, particularly the United Nations Security Council and the UNGA, to apply for non-state membership,” Raafat told the radio station.

The PLO member has also said that Palestine will not bow to the US pressure and called to “reject this demand and insist on heading to the UN in September.”

http://www.rt.com/news/us-un-palestine-vote-statehood-219/