Following diplomatic activity by several countries at the UN, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) UN representative, Riyad Mansour, who submitted his candidacy for the position of President of the General Assembly this month, withdrew his candidacy on Wednesday.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, welcomed the development, saying, “From the outset, the very submission of the candidacy was yet another attempt to turn the UN General Assembly into a political circus against Israel and to bolster the status of the Palestinian delegation through the back door."
He added, “Instead, the Palestinian delegation should start focusing on stopping incitement of terrorism and on actually reforming the Palestinian Authority."
In November of 2012, the United Nations passed a resolution recognizing “Palestine" as a non-member observer state.
The US in 2022 urged the PA not to pursue a vote at the UN Security Council on gaining full UN membership, stressing it will likely veto any such move.
The US followed through on that in April of 2024, vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that would have accepted the PA as a full member state.
A month later, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution granting the PA the powers and rights of a UN member state.