By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 5 -- 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 5 Inner City Press put the question to the State of Palestine's Observer Riyad Mansour, on UNTV.
Mansour said that Palestine wants a vote on the resolution this month. He said that the Security Council has supported a two state solution, and this is only possible with an end to the Occupation.
The UNTV stakeout was late to go online. Earlier on November 5 the Free UN Coalition for Access was first to report that Mansour would meet with the Security Council's president for November Gary Quinlan of Australia then do a stakeout at 2:30 pm.
The UN belated announced it - then left the stakeout camera invisible on UN Webcast. This delayed Mansour's presentation, about his letter about the Al Aqsa Mosque, asking for the Security Council to "shoulder its responsibilities." Watch this site.
Off camera on November 4, Mansour had told the Press of the resolution, "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.
