UN General Assembly to resume emergency special session on Mideast

The UN General Assembly will resume its 10th Emergency Special Session(ESS), after Palestine’s UN membership bid was blocked by the United States at the Security Council in April.

UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis has informed member states that he will convene a plenary meeting of the ESS on May 10, said Monica Grayley, his spokeswoman.

In a letter dated April 26, Francis told member states that the resumption of the ESS was requested by Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Uganda.

The three countries made the request in their respective capacities as chair of the Arab Group, chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Group and chair of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The United States on April 18 vetoed a Security Council draft resolution that would have recommended to the General Assembly Palestine’s full UN membership.

Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, expressed the hope that the General Assembly would ask the Security Council to reconsider the issue at the ESS.

“We will now bring the matter for consideration by the General Assembly on May 10 in a resumed 10th emergency special session.

“We trust that this body representing the international community will unequivocally support the admission of the State of Palestine to the UN and call on the Security Council to reconsider our application for admission favourably,” he said.

Under UN rules, the admission of new members has to be recommended by the Security Council before a vote in the General Assembly.

If the Security Council does not recommend the application or postpones its consideration of the application, the council then must submit a special report to the General Assembly, which in turn could ask the council to reconsider.

The ESS on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory was convened for the first time in April 1997.