RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority will “reconsider” its relationship with the United States after Washington vetoed a Palestinian bid for full UN membership earlier this week, president Mahmud Abbas said on Saturday.

“The Palestinian leadership will reconsider bilateral relations with the United States to ensure the protection of our people’s interests, our cause, and our rights,” Abbas told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Wafa said his remarks came “on the heels of the United States’ use of veto power” at the UN Security Council.

Thursday’s vote saw 12 countries on the Council back a resolution recommending full Palestinian membership and two — Britain and Switzerland — abstain. Only the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, voted against, using its veto to block the resolution.

China says admitting Palestinian state to UN is move to rectify injustice

Abbas said the Palestinian leadership will “develop a new strategy to protect Palestinian national decisions independently and follow a Palestinian agenda rather than an American vision or regional agendas”.

He said Palestinians would “not remain hostage to policies that have proven their failure and have been exposed to the entire world”.

And he said the stance of the US government had “generated unprecedented anger among the Palestinian people and the region’s populations, potentially pushing the region towards further instability, chaos and terrorism”.

State to rectify injustice

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on Saturday said efforts to admit a Palestinian state into the United Nations were a move to rectify a prolonged injustice, state media Xinhua reported.

He made the comments at a joint press conference with his Papua New Guinea counterpart during a visit to country.

The United States on Thursday effectively stopped the UN from recognising a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny Palestinians full membership of the world body.

“A prompt admission of Palestine into the United Nations is a move to rectify a prolonged historical injustice,” Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2024