UN membership: Palestine’s plea sent to UNSC committee

UNITED NATIONS: The president of the US Security Council on Wednesday referred Palestine’s application to become a United Nations member state to the committee that deals with the admission of new members. The council’s decision to refer the application comes almost a week after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted the application to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who then forwarded it to the 15-member body. The council’s Committee on the Admission of New Members is slated to consider the application on Friday. Any application for UN membership is considered by the council, which decides whether or not to recommend admission to the 193-member General Assembly, which then has to adopt a resolution for the admission of a member state.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th,  2011.