Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki (L) and Palestinian
ambassador to UNESCO Elias Sanbar attend a news conference during
the 36th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris October 31, 2011.
ambassador to UNESCO Elias Sanbar attend a news conference during
the 36th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris October 31, 2011.
“We are in a preparatory phase,” Imad Zuhairi told AFP, adding that the Palestinians are targeting to join 16 of the more than 20 organizations based in Geneva as a priority.
“We need to familiarize ourselves with the accession process, and in the second phase, we will write up our application for membership before knocking at the organization’s door,” he added.
“All these processes are based on international law and have nothing to do with politics,” said the envoy.
On Monday, the Palestinians were granted full membership by the Paris-based UNESCO, a move which led the United States to suspend its financial contribution to the U.N. cultural body.
The U.S. move prompted the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to describe Washington’s decision as “unfortunate.”
“I believe it is very unfortunate that the United States has decided to deprive UNESCO from its contributions,” Lavrov told reporters on the sidelines of a joint meeting with Gulf officials in the United Arab Emirates.
“I think the Palestinian membership to UNESCO was a very legitimate request from Ramallah,” he said.
Jordan’s parliament also criticized Washington in an official statement.
“We condemn the U.S. decision, which was taken to punish UNESCO for the member states’ democratic and just voting to grant Palestine what it deserves,” the lower house of parliament said in a statement carried by the official Petra news agency.
“Washington’s move is strange because the United States tries to convince the world that it is protector of democracy and freedom.”
Angry U.S. officials said Washington was withdrawing its share of UNESCO funding, which amounts to almost a quarter of the cultural body’s overall budget, and warned of a “cascade” effect should other U.N. bodies follow suit.
“We welcome the Palestinian admission to UNESCO as a step in the right direction. We urge other U.N. agencies to follow suit,” the Jordanian lawmakers said.
The U.S.’ arch foe Iran also hailed the Palestinian admission to the U.N. body and also criticized the American response.
“The membership of Palestine is a symbolic act that (proves) global support for Palestinian rights,” ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly media conference, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The United States must know its blind support of the Zionist regime (Israel) has no place in world public opinion,” he said.
Canada also voted against the resolution to admit Palestine into UNESCO and said it was “not happy” with the outcome of the vote and will reconsider its participation in the U.N. cultural body.
Israel has had strained ties with UNESCO for some time. In 2010 it announced it was suspending ties over several resolutions referring to holy sites in the occupied West Bank.
But the statement was quickly retracted, with the foreign ministry citing a “translation error” and saying it was only suspending cooperation with UNESCO at certain sites, including the West Bank sites covered by the resolutions.
Winning membership in UNESCO will allow the Palestinians, who previously held observer status at the organization, to apply to classify its natural and cultural sites as World Heritage Sites.
The Palestinians got backing from two thirds of UNESCO’s members to become its 195th member. Of 173 countries that voted from a possible 185, 107 voted in favor, 14 voted against, 52 abstained and 12 were absent. Abstentions did not count toward the final tally.
Palestinians hope to join 16 more U.N. agencies within weeks; leaders criticize U.S.
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