Official: U.S. only permanent UNSC member against full Palestinian UN membership

The United States is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council that opposes full UN membership for the Palestinians, said Nabil Shaath, international affairs adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.Last Tuesday, Abbas told the Security Council in a speech that the Palestinians plan to step up their efforts to gain full membership at the UN.“All of the permanent members of the UN support our efforts to become full members of the UN except the United States of America,” Shaath told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “The US is really the sole obstacle in our way to achieving full membership.”The US and Israel have historically held that the Palestinians should not make efforts to gain full membership at the UN before a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been achieved.In order to achieve full membership at the UN, the Palestinians need at least nine members of the Security Council including all the permanent members to vote in favor of them becoming a full member.The five permanent members of the Security Council include the US, France, the UK, Russia and China.The Palestinians currently have non-member observer state status at the UN.