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Israeli deputy FM says satisfied with Palestinian state resolution failure at UNSC

The UN Security Council failed on Tuesday to vote in favor of a resolution on creating a Palestinian state and ending the Israeli occupation
UN Security Council EPA/PETER FOLEY
UN Security Council
© EPA/PETER FOLEY

TEL AVIV, December 31. /TASS/. Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi has expressed satisfaction with the failure of the resolution on creating a Palestinian state at the United Nations Security Council. He said that every Israeli citizen that wants peace with the Palestinians can be satisfied with the vote.

"This deals a blow to efforts by (Palestinian President) Mahmoud Abbas to embarrass and isolate us,” Hanegbi, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israel’s public radio several hours after the resolution failed to pass within the 15-member council.

The UN Security Council failed on Tuesday to vote in favor of a resolution on creating a Palestinian state and ending the Israeli occupation. The document did not receive the majority support and was vetoed by the US that criticized it as being untimely and unconstructive.

Only Australia stood together with the United States. Eight countries: Russia, Argentina, Jordan, China, Luxembourg, France, Chad and Chile supported the resolution and another five Security Council members — the UK, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea and Rwanda abstained.

The Palestinians lacked only one vote for “the moral victory” in case of which they could blame the United States for vetoing the resolution.

Falling short of the required number of positive votes and faced with a veto from one of its permanent members, the United Nations Security Council failed to adopt a draft resolution that would have affirmed the “urgent need” to reach within 12 months a peaceful solution to the situation in the Middle East and would have paved the way to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the UN said in a press release.

The draft also outlined several parameters for the proposed solution — with a one-year deadline for negotiations with Israel and a “full and phased withdrawal of Israeli forces” from the West Bank by the end of 2017 — and would have looked forward to welcoming Palestine as a full UN Member State within the 12-month timeframe, urging both parties to build trust and negotiate in good faith.

Russia’s envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in a deadlock as it has been monopolized by the United States.

Churkin expressed regret at the UN Security Council’s failure to adopt the draft resolution on Palestine, which he said was set to “reinforce the generally accepted international and legal basis” for the Middle East peace process.