US Threatens “Consequences” If UNESCO Votes To Seat Palestinian State
By KUNA
The United States said on Wednesday that there are “consequences” if UNESCO votes to seat Palestine as a member state.
“We are doing the same kind of individual and bilateral consultation privately that we have been doing publicly, in terms of explaining why we think this is absolutely the wrong way to go; that we are not going to create a Palestinian state at UNESCO”, said State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland in a press briefing.
“There are consequences if UNESCO votes in this direction, as we have discussed. And we have concerns about our ability to continue to participate and our ability to ensure that UNESCO has the full benefit of U.S. support”, she added.
Nuland noted that there are “red lines in U.S. legislation and that if those are crossed in UNESCO, that the legislation is triggered.
So I do not want to get ahead of decisions at UNESCO, but I think we’ve been absolutely clear about our concerns”.
“We do not think this is appropriate in any of the U.N. agencies. In addition to our concern that you do not create a Palestinian state inside U.N. agencies…you only create it at the negotiating table between the parties”, she added.
The Palestinian Authority submitted last September its application for statehood before the United Nations Security Council, a meeting will be held next month to follow up on this application.
“We do not know at what stage the review that is ongoing by the Security Council will come to member states for consideration. So the point we are trying to make here is that that ought to be the governing process for the U.N. at this stage. We should not have parallel processes in constituent agencies”, concluded Nuland.
