The United Nations has reaffirmed its support for the "two-state solution" after the United States vetoed the widely-supported resolution to accept Palestine as a full member of the UN.
The U.S. veto came on Thursday at a meeting of the 15-member UN Security Council, in which 12 voted in favor of the resolution while the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained. If it had passed, the resolution would have then moved on to the General Assembly for its approval.
Explaining the veto, Robert Wood, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said the country supports the "two-state solution" but emphasized that Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the involved parties.
"The United States continues to strongly support a two-state solution. This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood. But instead, is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties," Wood said.
Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, noted that "the two-state solution" is still their guiding principle and called on collective efforts towards its realization.
"A two-state solution remains the loadstar for the Secretary-General, and he thinks everyone should be working towards that. I'm not going to get into analysis and hypotheticals at this point," Dujarric said.
Earlier this month, Palestine's renewed request for full member-state status at the United Nations was evaluated by the UN Committee on the Admission of New Members. This revival of their membership bid in early April was supported by the 140 countries that recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said it has sufficient support and will not give up its efforts to become a full member of the UN.
"I was moved by all of your statements those who voted in favor and even those who voted differently. Of the passion that it contained in your commitment and understanding the pain and the moment of the Palestinian people. I salute you in the name of the Palestinian people and their leadership," Mansour said.
UN reaffirms support for "two-state solution" after US vetoes Palestinian membership bid
Serbia's cooperation with China has been the best as the two countries enjoy rock solid friendship and trust, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to the European country.
The Serbia president made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the China Central Television (CCTV) in Belgrade on Wednesday.
Vucic hailed the real friendship between Serbia and China.
"That time we were discovering each other. Now we know that there is a real friendship that's been established. Since then, we developed substantive trust between the top leadership of both countries. But I believe that there is a big change. We have never had anything against Chinese, never, ever. But now we like and we love Chinese people here, and we have nothing bad to say about our cooperation with China and Chinese state and Chinese people," he said.
"There were thousands of attempts from outside of the country in order to persuade us, to convince us that taking loans from China will create a dubious situation for fiscal systems of Serbia. But as you can see, an average public debt to GDP ratio in Europe now is 89.5 percent. And in Serbia it's 47 percent. We have no problems. We have always been cooperating in a very best manner with China," said the president.
The Serbian president hopes that more Chinese people will come to visit the country to better understand it.
"Apart from creating this trust and confidence in each other's decisions, in each other behavior within international public political arena. We developed our economic ties, trade ties and now it's time to go to another stage, a strategic partnership or how do we see a common future together. And at the same time, it's a also about people connecting to each other. That is, I believe, our task. And we expect more Chinese people to come to Serbia. I believe they feel at home here, and we like them and hope that this will bring more initiatives, different kind of initiatives, more businesses, more tourists, more people that would get to know many things about Serbia, Belgrade's history," said Vucic.
Xi will pay state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary from May 5 to 10.
Serbian president sees cooperation with China as best amid rock solid friendship, trust
