Australia ‘now likely’ to support UN General Assembly motion for Palestine resolution

Australia is on track to support a UN General Assembly motion that would give the Palestinian authority rights similar to a nation-state in that body.

Australia is on track to support a UN General Assembly motion on Friday night that would give the Palestinian authority rights similar to a nation-state in that body.

In a move that is likely to anger Jewish community groups, government sources confirmed on Friday that following its watering down, Australia was now likely to vote for the Palestinian resolution rather than abstain.

Australian Government sources said the most recent version of the resolution circulated by the United Arab Emirates significantly watered down rights for the Palestinians which had been in earlier drafts.

They were at pains to emphasise that the resolution in the General Assembly no longer seeks to grant membership to Palestine but would instead extend Palestinians’ rights to participate as observers at the UN.

Membership of the UN General Assembly is subject to approval by the Security Council whose permanent members France, China, Russia, the UK and the USA all have vetoes.

On Thursday the US vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have granted Palestinians full membership of the UN.

Australia is more than likely to vote for a Palestine resolution than abstain. Picture: Angela Weiss.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said on Friday morning the government was still “weighing its options”. Picture: Getty Images.

All other Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution except the UK and Switzerland which abstained.

The watered down resolution still expresses the aspiration for Palestine to attain membership, which Australia supports, but explicitly rules out having a vote in the General Assembly until such time as the Security Council approves.

Government sources said they expected more no votes to move to abstentions and more abstentions move to yes overnight.

On Friday morning Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong told the ABC the Government was still weighing its options.

“Well, there is a lot of negotiation and discussion, and we will look at what the text says, we will look at what the actual meaning, the resolution is,” she said.

“We will look at, and we are focused on the situation on the ground.”

Originally published as Australia ‘now likely’ to support UN General Assembly motion for Palestine resolution