Abbas: US Veto Against Palestine Full UN Membership is ‘Regrettable, Irresponsible’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (dpa)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (dpa)
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Abbas: US Veto Against Palestine Full UN Membership is ‘Regrettable, Irresponsible’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (dpa)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (dpa)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday termed the US veto at the Security Council against his country’s request for full membership in the UN as “disappointing, regrettable, shameful, irresponsible, and unjustified.”

In an interview with the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the President said the US veto to block the resolution, which was introduced by Algeria, constitutes a blatant aggression against the rights, history, land, and sanctities of the Palestinian people, challenging the will of the international community.

“While the world agrees on the application of international law and stands by the Palestinian right, America continues to support the occupation, refusing to compel Israel to stop its genocidal war,” Abbas said.

“It provides Israel with weapons and funds,” the President added.

He then accused Washington of abandoning all promises regarding the two-state solution and achieving peace in the region.

“The Palestinian leadership will reconsider bilateral relations with the US to ensure the protection of our people’s interests, our cause, and our rights,” he affirmed.

Abbas warned that the entire region is heading towards further instability in the absence of a just solution to the Palestinian cause, based on Palestinian, Arab and international frameworks.

The US on Thursday vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council that would have paved the way for the state of Palestine to gain full membership at the United Nations.

The vote in the 15-member Council was 12 in favor and two abstentions – the UK and Switzerland.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.