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General Assembly president gives update on Palestinian bid for statehood, Libyan UN representation

14 September 2011 02:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The new General Assembly President, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar, said on Tuesday that he has received no request to date from the Palestinian representation at the UN, indicating whether or not they plan to seek statehood status in the world organization, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"To be frank with you I still didn’t receive any request about this issue," Al-Nasser said at a press conference after the opening of the 66th General Assembly session.

Palestine is said to be seeking to be upgraded to statehood status or to the status of a non-state observer at the UN. Currently, Palestine is represented by a permanent observer mission, which leaves them with less diplomatic leverage.

The leaders of Palestine can achieve UN statehood status through a Security Council and a General Assembly vote, but the U. S., which along with Israel opposes the move, is expected to use Security Council veto power to prevent Palestine from gaining statehood. Alternatively, Palestine could go directly to the General Assembly, bypassing the Security Council, to ask for non- member observer status, which would give them some of the privileges afforded to member states.

"Of course it’s up to the Palestinians what they want," said Al- Nasser. "There are two ways and everybody knows: Security Council or General Assembly. So I think we’ll wait and see what’s going to happen."

Al-Nasser reminded reporters that the Palestinian leadership is still engaged in discussions in Egypt about the statehood bid.

"As I know, and I’m sure some of you know, that there is in Cairo the Arab follow-up committee," he said. "They are very seriously engaged in discussion. I believe even the European Union (EU) representative Ms. Ashton is there."

Leaders from the Arab League as well as Catherine Ashton, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, have been meeting in Cairo to discuss Palestine’s next move.

On another current issue, the representation of Libya in the UN, Al-Nasser said that the process to replace the deposed Gaddafi regime’s ambassadors to the UN with those of the new ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) has begun.

"The Libyan NTC already sent a letter to the SG (secretary- general) requesting him to forward their request to the president of the General Assembly to process, because they want to represent the Libyan people, but at the same time the seat still belongs to, is represented by, the old regime," he said.

Al-Nasser said that next, the letter is forwarded to him, and he will in turn pass it on to a credentials committee for Libya that has already been formed. The nine members of this committee will come to an agreement on Libyan representation and then bring the issue to a vote in the General Assembly.

"If they decide to vote on this request it only requires a simple majority to accept this request," said Al-Nasser.