UN General Assembly to resume emergency special session on Middle East

United Nations, May 2 The UN General Assembly will resume its 10th emergency special session (ESS) on May 10, after Palestine's UN membership bid was blocked by the US 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, on Wednesday.

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

The US 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 and trust that this body representing the international community will unequivocally support the admission of Palestine to the UN and call on the Security Council to reconsider our application for admission favourably," he told a General Assembly meeting on Wednesday on the use of the veto by the US.

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 10th ESS on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory was convened for the first time in April 1997.

--IANS

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