Barbados officially recognizes Palestine as a state

The Republic of Barbados, through its Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds, has officially announced that it has “made the determination that the time is ripe for us to have a formal diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine,” becoming the 140th UN member country to do so.

Symmonds proclaimed, “How can we say we want a two-state solution if we do not recognize Palestine as a state?”

The Foreign Minister then explained, “Despite having said to the world that we would like to see a two-state solution, Barbados itself has never recognized the State of Palestine. And therefore, there is an incongruity and inconsistency.”

Moreover, Barbados stressed that it will maintain its relationship with “Israel” and that the most recent decision to formally recognize Palestine as a state will not affect the country’s bilateral relations with tel Aviv.

US vetoes bid for Palestine’s full membership status at UNSC

The United States vetoed a decision to award Palestine full membership status in the United Nations, in a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday, Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent reported. 

Washington lobbied several nations to vote against the proposal, this past week, however, its efforts failed to produce the sought-after results, as 12 nations in the UNSC voted for awarding Palestine full membership status. 

Two other nations abstained from voting, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom, leaving the US stranded with only no vote in the UNSC. Being a permanent member of the UNSC, a US no-vote would nullify any proposal, even if it had garnered the full backing of all other members. France’s representative in the UN said that the country backed the proposal after it was reported that Paris abstained from voting. 

Read more: Palestinian Authority slams US ‘aggression’