Palestinians Seek UNESCO despite US Threats
Local Editor
Palestinians will seek a vote on their bid for full membership of UNESCO next week, Foreign Minister Riyal al-Malki said Wednesday, despite US threats to pull funding from the UN cultural agency.
UNESCO is the first UN agency the Palestinians have sought to join as a full member since applying for full membership of the United Nations on September 23.
As the bid for a full UN seat, which can be granted only by the Security Council, is destined to fail because of opposition by Washington, which has a veto in the forum, UNESCO is one agency the Palestinians can join as a full member regardless of US vetoes.
"Palestinian representative would address UNESCO's General Conference Sunday and the Palestinians were aiming for a vote the same day," the Palestinian diplomat stressed.
Hoping to "succeed in this effort despite recognition of great pressure which the US is leading inside UNESCO," Malki announced that "there were great threats ... that if Palestine's membership of UNESCO is approved US will stop its assistance to that organization."
Speaking about the UNESCO membership bid, Malki said the United States wanted to make it look as though the Palestinians would be to blame for any financial pain.
"They want to make Palestine responsible for all these results, and therefore matters will not be easy in UNESCO in the coming two days, but despite that, we will continue in our effort," he said.
Source: Reuters, Edited by moqawama.org
Palestinians will seek a vote on their bid for full membership of UNESCO next week, Foreign Minister Riyal al-Malki said Wednesday, despite US threats to pull funding from the UN cultural agency.
UNESCO is the first UN agency the Palestinians have sought to join as a full member since applying for full membership of the United Nations on September 23.
As the bid for a full UN seat, which can be granted only by the Security Council, is destined to fail because of opposition by Washington, which has a veto in the forum, UNESCO is one agency the Palestinians can join as a full member regardless of US vetoes.
"Palestinian representative would address UNESCO's General Conference Sunday and the Palestinians were aiming for a vote the same day," the Palestinian diplomat stressed.
Hoping to "succeed in this effort despite recognition of great pressure which the US is leading inside UNESCO," Malki announced that "there were great threats ... that if Palestine's membership of UNESCO is approved US will stop its assistance to that organization."
Speaking about the UNESCO membership bid, Malki said the United States wanted to make it look as though the Palestinians would be to blame for any financial pain.
"They want to make Palestine responsible for all these results, and therefore matters will not be easy in UNESCO in the coming two days, but despite that, we will continue in our effort," he said.
Source: Reuters, Edited by moqawama.org
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