The United States cast a veto at the Security Council on Thursday to deny the Palestinians full membership in the United Nations, effectively blocking the United Nations from recognizing a Palestinian state.

It vetoed a draft resolution recommending that the 193-member UN General Assembly “admit the State of Palestine as a Member of the United Nations”. Britain and Switzerland abstained from voting, while the remaining 12 council members voted in favor.

“The United States continues to strongly support a two-state solution. This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but rather an acknowledgment that it can only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the council.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the U.S. veto in a statement as “unfair, immoral and unreasonable.”

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council in a sometimes emotional voice after the vote: “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not shake our will or frustrate our determination. We will not stop our efforts.” “

The Palestinian effort to formally join the United Nations comes six months after a war broke out between Israel and Palestinian militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and comes as Israel expands settlements in the occupied West Bank that the United Nations considers illegal.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised the U.S. for the veto.

Addressing the 12 Security Council members who voted in favor of the draft resolution, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said: “This is very sad because your vote will only further fuel Palestinian rejectionism and make Peace is almost impossible to achieve.”

“Start in Gaza”

Palestine is currently a non-member observer state and has de facto recognition of its statehood, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012. But an application to become a full member of the United Nations requires Security Council approval, and then at least two approvals. – Two-thirds of the Assembly.

“We believe that recognition of Palestinian statehood should not come at the beginning of a new process, but it does not have to come at the end. We must start by resolving the looming crisis in Gaza,” British UN Secretary-General Barbara Ambassador Woodward told the council.

The UN Security Council has long supported the vision of two countries living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in 1967.

Algeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ammar Benjama, said before the vote that admitting Palestinians to the United Nations would strengthen, not undermine, a two-state solution, adding: “Peace will come from Palestinian inclusion, not exclusion.”

The Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank. In 2007, Hamas overthrew the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.

In a statement, Hamas condemned the U.S. position and called on the international community to “support the struggle of the Palestinian people and their legitimate right to determine their own destiny.”

Israel is retaliating against Hamas in Gaza for an October 7 attack led by the group in southern Israel.

Israel said the attack killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, and Gaza health authorities said Israel’s offensive in Gaza has since killed nearly 34,000 people.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres earlier told the Security Council: “Failure to make progress on a two-state solution will only increase instability and risk for hundreds of millions of people in the region, who will continue to live under the ongoing threat of violence.” Next.” Thursday.