By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 4 --
With questions
mounting about
when Palestine's
resolution
setting a time
frame to end
Israel's
occupation
will actually
be put to a
vote in the
Security
Council, on
November 4 the
Press asked
the State of
Palestine's
Observer Riyad
Mansour.
Mansour said
that he wants
a vote on the
resolution
"this month."
He said, "this
exercise,
we're going to
be done with
this month.
This month. If
there are parties
which have a
veto power and
they select
otherwise...
we have
options."
Mansour said,
"we are
cooking it
under slow
fire, but I
think after
today we will
increase the
fire a bit."
As to the five
new members
coming onto
the Council on
January 1,
Mansour said
then Palestine
may put
forward an
application
for full UN
membership.
"The first
thing we are
considering
for them is to
submit our
application
for
membership. If
somebody casts
a veto, I will
still be a few
steps ahead of
Israel."
Even if it's
vetoed,
Mansour said,
as long as
Palestine
reaches the
"threshold"
that requires
a veto, he
will have done
better than
Israel and
will be like
Italy and
Ireland, Finland
and Jordan,
which were
subject to
vetoes and had
to wait.
Back on October
21 as the
Palestine
debate of the
UN Security
Council went
on in the
Council
chamber,
Inner City
Press
conferred with
a range of
Council
sources about
the pending
draft
resolution to
set a time
frame to end
Israel's
occupation.
Negotiations
were
held on the
draft last
week but only
at the
“expert”
level, not of
Permanent
Representatives
of the
Council's 15
members.
Supporters of
the current
draft,
according to
Inner City
Press'
sources,
include China
and Russia,
Argentina and
Chile, Chad
and it was
assumed
Nigeria,
although
sources say
Nigeria in
consultations
said they
didn't yet
have
instructions.
France
was described
as more
excited by the
draft than
either the US
or the UK, as
not have a
problem with a
time frame to
end the
Occupation but
wanting
unstated
changes to the
draft. France
did not put
forth
amendments, a
source told
Inner City
Press,
guessing that
France didn't
want to
“embarrass”
the US
Administration
before the
November
mid-term
elections.
The UK
was described
as less
enthusiastic,
but as somehow
“softened” by
the recent
vote in
Parliament
favoring
recognizing
Palestine as a
state.
Talk
turned to the
new members of
the Security
Council coming
in on January
1, with
Malaysia
instead of
South Korea
seen as a
shift in favor
of Palestine
as a state.
(This
reporter's Security
Council
elections
coverage is
collected here.)
Angola and
Venezuela are
seen as
supportive and
“even Spain,”
as one source
put it to
Inner City
Press. But
what about New
Zealand? We'll
have more on
this. Watch
this site.
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