By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
Three countries that did not vote in favor of last week’s Palestinian UN Security Council draft resolution are no longer a part of the 15-member body, as the Palestinian Authority prepares to resubmit the motion.
The UN's most powerful body rejected the Dec. 30 measure that called for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories within three years as the motion failed to secure the minimum of nine votes.
In addition to Australia and the U.S. voting against the resolution, the U.K., Nigeria, Rwanda, South Korea and Lithuania abstained, while Jordan, France, Russia, China, Argentina, Chad, Chile and Luxembourg voted in favor.
As one of the five permanent members on the Council that holds veto power, the U.S. was widely expected to block the motion's passage, but mustering the minimum number of "yes" votes would at least force Washington to a decision that some say might have imperiled the American-led military coalition with Arab states in Iraq and Syria.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, said Sunday that Palestinians were consulting with Jordan on resubmitting the draft resolution.
"The Palestinian leadership insists to move ahead with its political and diplomatic struggle," Abbas said. "It will continue to do this until a Palestinian state is established within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital."
Media reports say the Palestinians hope the Security Council's new non-permanent members, which began their terms Jan. 1, will be more sympathetic toward their resolution.
Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela on Thursday replaced Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, South Korea and Rwanda, whose terms expired at the end of 2014. Others still serving are Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria.
The Palestinian Authority's Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said Monday that he had “received assurances from the new members who joined the Security Council that they would support the Palestinian demand to end the occupation," according to New York-based Jewish news website Algemeiner Journal.
“Chile, Venezuela and Malaysia are behind us,” the journal quoted Maliki as telling Voice of Palestine Radio. He reportedly said that the Palestinian Authority was also “in contact” with New Zealand and Angola to secure their support.
Malaysia's UN mission told The Anadolu Agency on Monday that it would be supportive of the motion if it were brought again to the Council, while New Zealand said it favored a solution within the framework of the UN-proposed two-state solution through negotiations between the two sides.
"Given the threat the conflict poses to international peace and security, we believe the Security Council has a role to play in the Middle East peace process and are assessing the best approach for its next steps," read a statement from New Zealand's UN mission.
Spain, whose parliament urged its government in November to recognize Palestine as a state, is widely expected to vote in favor of the resolution.
Like its allies Russia and China, Venezuela is also expected to vote “yes.”
The resolution sets the end of 2017 as the deadline for Israeli security forces to fully withdraw from the occupied territories and names East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
It also calls for a comprehensive peace deal to be reached within a year.
In response to the resolution's setback, the Palestinian Authority signed the Rome Statute – the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court – along with applications for Palestinian membership in 20 international treaties and organizations.
Full membership to the Hague-based court would allow the Palestinians to bring lawsuits against Israel for war crimes.
In retaliation, Israeli government blocked the transfer of approximately $125 million in tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, a move opposed by Washington.
The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous Balfour Declaration, called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
Palestinians want a state of their own in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem, currently occupied by Israel, as its capital.
