US vetoes Palestine UN membership resolution

The United States vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution on Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine.

The resolution voted on Thursday afternoon would have raised the Palestinians' status from a non-member observer state to full membership.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council the U.S. veto “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”

This is the second Palestinian attempt for full membership and it comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage.

Algeria’s U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council who introduced the resolution, called Palestine’s admission said that “Peace will come from Palestine’s inclusion, not from its exclusion.”