Palestine seeks UN Security Council position in wake of US Mideast plan

UNITED NATIONS - Palestine is seeking a position from the UN Security Council in the wake of US President Donald Trump's announcement of a new Middle East peace plan, said Palestine's representative to the United Nations.

Palestine is looking for a draft resolution even though it may well be vetoed, Riyad Mansour, the permanent representative of the observer state of Palestine, told a meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

"We will be seeking a position from the Security Council, a position in the form of a draft resolution that will be before the Security Council," he said.

"We know it will be defeated by a veto. But we want to show that the entire international community is reflecting the same position advocated by all of us and articulated by the secretary-general today again, as he articulated days ago, when this very bad (US) plan was announced in Washington, D.C."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who presided over Tuesday's meeting of the committee, said the world body is committed to its established position of a two-state solution.

Mansour said Palestine is working closely with Tunisia, an Arab state on the Security Council, as well as other council members, for a text.

A document has been circulated to all members of the Security Council, and it is hoped that negotiations will be finished by Thursday or Friday and a draft resolution would be acted on in the Security Council on Feb 11, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be present at the council.

"We will be working to have a draft resolution with the strongest possible language and at the same time with the largest support possible in the Security Council," said Mansour.

Trump on Jan 28 revealed a controversial Middle East peace plan, which calls for a two-state solution while recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided capital."

The US plan was immediately rejected by the Arab world. In an emergency meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Saturday, Arab foreign ministers unanimously agreed to boycott the US plan and not to cooperate "in any way" with Washington in its implementation.

Mansour blasted the US plan again on Tuesday, saying it is "a plan against peace" and "a plan of submission" for the Palestinian people.