New York: The UN Security Council
on Wednesday referred Palestinian application seeking full membership
for itself at the United Nations to a special committee that
deals with the admission of new members.
The Council`s Committee on the Admission of New Members
is slated to consider the application on Friday.
A brief full session of the 15-member council discussed
the application today.
UN Security Council President Lebanese ambassador Nawaf
Salam said he would send the Palestine application to the
committee unless there was a proposal to the contrary.
Palestine currently has observer status at the UN.
It had submitted the application for full membership
"based on the Palestinian peoples` natural, legal and historic
rights" and based on resolution 181 adopted by the General
Assembly in 1947, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas wrote in his submission to the UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
In resolution 181, the Assembly decided on the partition
of Palestine into Jewish and Arab States.
Abbas added that the submission comes "after decades of
displacement, dispossession and the foreign military
occupation of my people" and with the successful culmination
of the Palestinian State-building programme.
Any application for UN membership is considered by the
Council, which decides whether or not to recommend admission
to the 193-member General Assembly, which then has to adopt a
resolution for the admission of a member state.
PTI
