Arab League deplores US veto denying Palestine full UN membership

Representatives of the Arab League held an emergency meeting in Cairo on Wednesday (Apr. 24) to discuss the war in Gaza.

The session came after the US blocked a widely backed U.N. resolution that would have paved the way for full membership for Palestine.

Palestine has an observer status and has long sought to gain the full U.N membership, Israel has worked to prevent that.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

The chairman of the Arab League session called it a "failure" and said it was "a disappointing matter as it doesn’t go along with the two-state solution initiatives."

“The current events and ongoing developments have proven that in the Palestinian case, there is no alternative for a sustainable political solution that guarantees all the legitimate rights for the Palestinian people and the acknowledgment of their independent state with the borders of 4 June 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Hussein Sidi Abdellah Deh, Mauritania's permanent representative told the assembly.

Following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and wars that ensued, various sets of talks between Israeli and Arab leaders including Palestinians took place.

The creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel however never materialized. Different Israeli governments continued the colonization of Palestinian territories.

Israel's current government has adamantly opposed the creation and recognition of a Palestinian state.