US Vetoes Palestinian Bid to Become Full Member of UN

The United States vetoed a widely backed UN resolution Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent, Associated Press reported.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. US allies France, Japan and South Korea supported the resolution.

The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member UN General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, so its admission would have been approved, likely by a much higher number of countries.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the US veto of Palestine's UN membership. According to Al Jazeera, Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas's office has called the US veto of full UN membership for Palestine “a blatant aggression … which pushes the region ever further to the edge of the abyss.”