The UN Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City. AFP
The UN Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City. AFP
The UN Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City. AFP
The UN Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City. AFP

US vetoes Palestine membership of the UN


Adla Massoud
  • English
  • Arabic

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

The US on Thursday vetoed Palestine's bid for full membership in the world body.

It blocked a draft resolution that recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations”.

Britain and Switzerland abstained, while the other 12 council members voted in favour.

President [Joe] Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution with Israel's security guaranteed,” Robert Wood, US deputy ambassador to the UN, told the council.

“This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz commended the US for casting a veto to deny the Palestinian Authority full membership of the world body.

“The shameful proposal was rejected. Terrorism will not be rewarded,” he said.

The decision to veto the request prompted criticism from across the world.

The Palestinian presidency condemned the US veto, calling it “unfair, unethical and unjustified”.

Russia's UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya called the US veto a “hopeless attempt to stop the inevitable course of history”.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana's representative, expressed deep disappointment that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people were not acknowledged.

“Guyana had hoped that the council's historic sympathy and apparent empathy with the Palestinian cause could have translated into strong political will … given the existential threat Palestinians currently face,” she said.

Palestine currently holds observer status in the world body, meaning it has the right to speak but has no voting power on resolutions. It first applied for full membership in 2011.

Two weeks ago, the delegation from the state of Palestine submitted a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres requesting the renewal of its application for full membership.

After this request, the UN Security Council established a committee to review the matter, which on Tuesday released a report indicating that the 15 members of the council are split on whether to endorse Palestine as a full member.

Israel's ambassador Gilad Erdan said before the vote that Palestine does not meet the criteria for full UN membership, which he outlined as having a permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter relations with other states.

Riyad Mansour optimistic about Palestine becoming full member of UN – video

“Who is the council voting to 'recognise' and give full membership status to? Hamas in Gaza? The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Nablus? Who?” he asked.

“The only thing that a forced unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state will do is to make any future negotiations almost impossible.”

The US, Israel's strongest ally on the council, has said that establishing an independent Palestinian state should happen through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and not at the UN.

Ziad Abu Amr, the special representative for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, asked the US how seeking full UN membership would damage the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

“How could this recognition and this membership harm international peace and security?” he said before the Security Council.

“Those who are trying to disrupt and hinder the adoption of such a resolution … are not helping the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis and the prospects for peace in the Middle East in general.”

Mr Abu Amr said full Palestinian UN membership was not an alternative to serious political negotiations to enact a two-state solution and resolve other pending issues.

“This resolution will grant hope to the Palestinian people hope for a decent life within an independent state,” he said.

Current US legislation requires the Biden administration to either veto any such UN resolution or cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority.

“In last month's $1.2 trillion US congressional funding bill, a clause was made to say that the PA would not be able to receive any money from this fund if they obtain full UN membership,” Maya Ungar, UN analyst at the International Crisis Group, told The National.

Company%C2%A0profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETuhoon%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYear%20started%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202021%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFares%20Ghandour%2C%20Dr%20Naif%20Almutawa%2C%20Aymane%20Sennoussi%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERiyadh%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Ehealth%20care%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESize%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E15%20employees%2C%20%24250%2C000%20in%20revenue%0D%3Cbr%3EI%3Cstrong%3Envestment%20stage%3A%20s%3C%2Fstrong%3Eeed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EWamda%20Capital%2C%20Nuwa%20Capital%2C%20angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Bharat

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar

Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Details

Kabir Singh

Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series

Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa

Rating: 2.5/5 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs

Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12

Power: 819hp

Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm

Price: From Dh1,700,000

Available: Now

BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES

Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)

Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)

Saturday

Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)

Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)

Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)

Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)

Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)

Sunday

Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)

Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)

Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)

The biog

Name: Abeer Al Bah

Born: 1972

Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992

Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old

Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school

 

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Korean Film Festival 2019 line-up

Innocent Witness, June 26 at 7pm

On Your Wedding Day, June 27 at 7pm

The Great Battle, June 27 at 9pm

The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, June 28 at 4pm

Romang, June 28 at 6pm

Mal Mo E: The Secret Mission, June 28 at 8pm

Underdog, June 29 at 2pm

Nearby Sky, June 29 at 4pm

A Resistance, June 29 at 6pm 

 

Winners

Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)

Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski

Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)

Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea

Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona

Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)

Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)

Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)

Best National Team of the Year: Italy 

Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello

Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)

Player Career Award: Ronaldinho

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Scores

Oman 109-3 in 18.4 overs (Aqib Ilyas 45 not out, Aamir Kaleem 27) beat UAE 108-9 in 20 overs (Usman 27, Mustafa 24, Fayyaz 3-16, Bilal 3-23)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8

Transmission: nine-speed automatic

Power: 630bhp

Torque: 900Nm

Price: Dh810,000

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

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Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

New schools in Dubai
RESULTS

5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m

Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)

5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m

Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.

6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.

6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.

7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m

Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.

7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m

Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.

8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m

Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.

Updated: April 19, 2024, 4:07 AM`