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In a diplomatic push for international recognition, Palestine is setting its sights on the UN Security Council, which could provide crucial support paving the way to its long-sought statehood.
In an interview with The National, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said his government is not merely seeking any endorsement, but is aiming for a unanimous recommendation from the council, without a veto from any permanent member.
“We can live with an abstention,” he said, acknowledging the pragmatic approach the state of Palestine is willing to take to achieve its objectives.
Mr Mansour said Palestine is seeking admission through the mechanisms of the UN and for the 1947 partition plan called for by the General Assembly to “become a reality”.
“One [Israel] has it,” he said. “The other one will be seeking it and hopefully will have it very soon.”
Mr Mansour expressed confidence in the support his nation has in the Security Council and the backing from the bigger General Assembly.
A total of 139 of the 193 member states have so far recognised Palestine as a full-fledged sovereign state.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned last month during a Security Council meeting that refusal to accept the Palestinians' right to statehood “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security”.
Britain, one of several western nations that does not recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, recently called for the establishment of a diplomatic campaign by “all the friends of a Palestinian state” to make a two-state solution irreversible.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron recently wrote in an opinion piece in the Mail on Sunday that Britain and its allies can help by confirming their “commitment” to a sovereign, viable Palestinian state and their vision for its composition.
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“Crucially, we must state our clear intention to grant it recognition, including at the United Nations,” Lord Cameron said.
He said that the Palestinian leadership must help by forming a new government which “can immediately start to deliver”.
Mr Mansour read Lord Cameron's words “very closely” and said Palestine needs to engage the UK “extensively” on the issue so that “we can have the same understanding that it means the admission of the state of Palestine to membership”.
“Now, if that is possibly the position of the UK, we hope that it can influence the United States in that regard,” he said.
The shift in the drive for statehood began in November 2012, when 138 member states in the General Assembly voted to elevate Palestine's status to that of a non-member observer state, meaning it can take part in General Assembly sessions and maintain offices at the UN headquarters in New York.
It also began officially using the name “state of Palestine” for all purposes.
Today, Mr Mansour said Palestine needs to “receive a resolution from the Security Council recommending to the General Assembly to accept the state of Palestine as a [full] member, and therefore for the General Assembly to vote with two-thirds majority to approve that recommendation, which I believe we do have”.
Procedurally, only the Security Council can grant full recognition of a state and this cannot happen if one of the five permanent members vetoes its request.
For many years, the stance of the US – Israel’s closest ally – has been to oppose the recognition of Palestine as a state at the bilateral level and within UN bodies.
It has said that Palestinian statehood should be realised solely through direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“We engaged everyone, including the United States, about two years ago on this issue … Washington decided that they will not be on board,” Mr Mansour said.
The pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the Gaza conflict has created an opportunity to re-evaluate strategies for advancing discussion on Palestinian statehood.
And it comes at a time when the two-state solution, a long-standing international vision for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, faces significant threats from what Mr Mansour described as “the current Israeli extremist rightist government”.
Palestine's admission to the world body is seen not only as a move towards self-determination but as a crucial “investment in peace” and in defence of the two-state solution itself, he said.
“It is the international community's duty to determine the fate of the two-state solution,” Mr Mansour said.
Mr Mansour, whose father moved to the US from Ramallah in the 1950s as a refugee, firmly rejected any unilateral action by Israel to dictate the terms of Palestine's statehood or its membership in the UN.
He said the right to self-determination is an “exclusive right to the Palestinian people alone” and is not something Palestine is willing to negotiate or seek permission for.
“It is not Israel unilaterally to dictate to us their wishes and to give us the permit to become a member state and to become a state and to exercise our right to self-determination,” Mr Mansour said.
“All these things are not acceptable to us.”
One of the stark differences in position between the US and the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah is that the latter did not condemn Hamas for the October 7 assault against Israel.
Mr Mansour said there was a double standard at play.
“Those who want to politicise this tragic situation, they want to condemn one side, and they don't want to condemn the horrific crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” he said.
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLA
Price, base / as tested Dh150,900 / Dh173,600
Engine 2.0L inline four-cylinder
Transmission Seven-speed automatic
Power 211hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 1,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.4L / 100km
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
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8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
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Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
Profile of Whizkey
Date founded: 04 November 2017
Founders: Abdulaziz AlBlooshi and Harsh Hirani
Based: Dubai, UAE
Number of employees: 10
Sector: AI, software
Cashflow: Dh2.5 Million
Funding stage: Series A
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
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MATCH DETAILS
Chelsea 4
Jorginho (4 pen, 71 pen), Azpilicueta (63), James (74)
Ajax 4
Abraham (2 og), Promes (20). Kepa (35 og), van de Beek (55)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Marathon results
Men:
1. Titus Ekiru(KEN) 2:06:13
2. Alphonce Simbu(TAN) 2:07:50
3. Reuben Kipyego(KEN) 2:08:25
4. Abel Kirui(KEN) 2:08:46
5. Felix Kemutai(KEN) 2:10:48
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Five ways to get fit like Craig David (we tried for seven but ran out of time)
Start the week as you mean to go on. So get your training on strong on a Monday.
Train hard, but don’t take it all so seriously that it gets to the point where you’re not having fun and enjoying your friends and your family and going out for nice meals and doing that stuff.
Think about what you’re training or eating a certain way for — don’t, for example, get a six-pack to impress somebody else or lose weight to conform to society’s norms. It’s all nonsense.
Get your priorities right.
And last but not least, you should always, always chill on Sundays.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Scoreline
Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')
Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Day 2 at the Gabba
Australia 312-1
Warner 151 not out, Burns 97, Labuschagne 55 not out
Pakistan 240
Shafiq 76, Starc 4-52
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
