Council Meeting on Palestine’s UN Membership Application
Tomorrow (28 September) the Council will meet in a closed formal meeting to discuss Palestine’s application for UN membership. During informal consultations yesterday (26 September) afternoon, Council members agreed that the next step would be to have a formal meeting to consider referring the matter to the standing Committee on the Admission of New Members (comprised of all members of the Council). It appears likely that the Council will come to an agreement to refer the membership application to this Committee.
It seems that the Committee is then likely to meet later this week. It appears that some Council members may suggest during the Committee meeting that before making any decision on the application, time should be given to the 23 September Quartet initiative which set out a specific time frame for the resumption of negotiations.
Under Rule 59 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council, the Committee is expected to examine the application and report its conclusions to the Council no less than 35 days before a regular session of the General Assembly or no less than 14 days before a Special Session. It appears that the time limit in Rules 59 are intended to give the General Assembly sufficient time to consider the Council’s recommendation, and in effect they do not require the Committee or the Council to make a decision within a certain time frame.
