Submission for UN membership by PA Q&A – Spokesman’s Office noon briefing (excerpts)

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Martin Nesirky, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the briefing.

/…

**Questions and Answers

Question:  I just want to clarify for the record.  Once the Palestinians submit their statehood application to the Secretary-General, the procedure is, the Secretary-General will then forward it and this will be to the Security Council, and then it’s up to the Security Council to send it back [inaudible]?

Spokesperson:  The procedure is as follows, and in this concrete instance, as you know, President Abbas has made it clear that he will submit a membership application to the Secretary-General tomorrow, this Friday.  The Secretary-General, on receipt of that application, reviews it from a technical point of view, and then refers, transmits, that application to the President of the Security Council.  It’s then — unless the Security Council decides otherwise — the President of the Security Council then calls for a committee to be established with one member from each of the Security Council members.  And they then would look at the application.  And it then sits firmly with the Council at that point.  That’s the running order, if you like.

Question:  Two follow-up questions on that.  Number one, when the Secretary-General reviews it for technicalities, can he at some point in time say “this application is not fully complete”, and ask to be changed and so forth?  And delayed, and when he sends to… yeah?

Spokesperson:  Well, the reason for a technical review is to ensure that any application, whether this one or another from some other entity, is fully compliant with the requirements for a membership application.  So it is not a rubber-stamping exercise, it’s due diligence.  But equally, as the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council state, the Secretary-General will transmit any membership application immediately.  And so there is no reason or desire to hold up an application.  It must be reviewed technically, and then transmitted to the President of the Council.

Question:  Okay, and once it… and this is on the… once it is in the hands of the Security Council, can they, I mean, take their time, like it is being suggested in various newspaper reports that it can be delayed?  It can [inaudible] Security Council can hold that meeting and basically [inaudible] issue after two months, after a year or so, is that the… what…?

Spokesperson:  I think you’d have to ask the Council President or other Council members for their intended approach to that.  From a technical standpoint, as I say, the Secretary-General is obliged to transmit the application immediately, which, as I say, means in practice after a technical review.  And at that point, the President of the Council is duty-bound to, unless the Council decides otherwise, to pull together a committee that would comprise the 15 members; in other words, one from each of the Member States in the Council.  And what happens after that is very much in their hands.  And I would refer you to them.

Question:  And there have been precedents before that the application has taken sometimes [inaudible] or two months before the Security Council accepts, I mean, reviews the [inaudible]?  There are precedents in the past?  There are prece… I am asking you, are there any precedents in the past…?

Spokesperson:  I think, well, as you know, there are precedents for just about everything in this Organization if you dig deep enough and go back far enough.  I think in this particular case, it really is for the Member States in the Security Council to deliberate and for them also to tell you what course of action they plan to take.

Question:  And in the meeting with Secretary-General and the Prime Minister of which you sent out the note, readout, [inaudible] with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday, did they speak about like Israel [inaudible]?

Spokesperson:  Well, the…

Question:  That also, you know, the Palestinian President’s [inaudible] while Israeli deals?

Spokesperson:  To my knowledge they did not.  But, as I said, and as you will have seen, the readout is quite detailed, I believe, and was quite explicit in saying that the Secretary-General urged the Prime Minister to act with responsibility, wisdom and restraint towards the Palestinian approach to the United Nations.  And he emphasized the need for historic decisions on both sides at this critical moment.  And also, as you will have seen, he stressed the need for further measures to lift the closure of the Gaza Strip.  So I think that was quite a clear readout.  But to my knowledge, the topic that you refer to was not raised in that meeting.  Okay.  Yes, Matthew?

/…

* *** *

For information media • not an official record