Palestinians push back at Trump, calls on UNSC to grant them statehood

“Negotiations are based on the terms of references enshrined in the relevant UN resolutions, Madrid principles, Arab Peace Initiative and the Quartet Road Map,” Mansour said.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: JANUARY 23, 2019 08:38
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour at the United Nations in New York, U.S., October 16, 2018 (photo credit: SHANNON STAPLETON/ REUTERS)
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour at the United Nations in New York, U.S., October 16, 2018
(photo credit: SHANNON STAPLETON/ REUTERS)
The United Nations Security Council must grant the Palestinians statehood status, PLO Ambassador Riyad Mansour said as he pushed back Tuesday against any Trump administration plan not based on the pre-1967 lines.
“We reiterate our appeal and call for support to Palestine’s request to UN membership pending since the year 2011, to allow us our rightful place among the community of nations,” Mansour said as he spoke before the UNSC in New York at its monthly meeting on the Middle East in New York. “Allow us our rightful place among the community of nations.”
Such a step, he said, would be consistent with “the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and independence and the two-state solution that the international community has insisted on, yet neglected for decades.”
The Palestinian Authority has spoken of its pursuit of UN membership, even though it’s expected that the US, which has veto power at the UNSC, would never support such a move. At present, the UN through the General Assembly has granted the Palestinians non-member statehood status.
Mansour was one of a number of speakers who spoke of the importance of a two-state solution in regard to the pre-1967 lines. The international community, including the Palestinians, fear that US President Donald Trump intends to put forward a peace plan that ignores past understandings with regard to the conflict’s resolution, particularly with regard to Jerusalem, borders and Palestinians as refugees.
“Negotiations are based on the terms of references enshrined in the relevant UN resolutions, Madrid principles, Arab Peace Initiative and the Quartet Road Map,” Mansour said. “It is on this basis that all final status issues must be resolved and that a just and lasting and comprehensive peace can be guaranteed. We call for the mobilization of regional and international efforts to help overcome the impasse and contribute to the realization of a just solution as a matter of urgency,” he said.
Egypt warned that disregarding these understandings would destroy all the work that had been done since the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Anything else will lead to one state, not two, its representative warned.
“Has the surrender to the one state solution become your final choice?” the Egyptian envoy said. “I hope the answer to this question will be no.”
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov also said that any peace plan must be based on “the basic tenets enshrined in bilateral agreements,” and “the principle that core issues can only be agreed through negotiations between the parties.”
“The agreements and the principles that have been established over the last 25 years must be respected by all if peace is to have a chance,” Mladenov said. He warned Israel that the status quo was radicalizing both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Those who believe that the conflict can be managed in perpetuity are wrong,” Mladenov said. “There is no status quo; there is only a deterioration that, if left unchecked, without a vision and the political will for peace, can only lead to endless conflict and the steady rise of radicalization on all sides.”