Washington, 4 April 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The US government remains committed to a negotiated solution for an independent Palestinian state, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.

The Palestinian permanent observer mission to the UN on Tuesday announced that it has again requested to become a full member of the United Nations, following a failed attempt in 2011.

The Palestinian Authority in September 2011 submitted an application for full UN membership but failed to obtain the nine votes necessary to pass it in the powerful 15-nation council. The US had threatened to veto the application.

The US and other Western powers had warned that UN recognition of a Palestinian state would void previous agreements that support negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to establish a Palestinian state living in peace next to Israel.

In 2012, the UN General Assembly voted to give Palestine "non-member observer State status" despite opposition from the US, which has no veto power there.

Of the 193 UN member states, 139 have so far recognized Palestine as an independent state. The US is not among them.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour on Tuesday requested that the 2011 Palestinian application for full membership be resubmitted to the Security Council in April.

When asked whether the US would veto the proposal this time, Miller said: "I'm not going to speculate about what may happen down the road."

At the same time, he emphasized that the US government had always made it clear that it supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.

However, "that is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties - something we are pursuing at this time - and not at the United Nations," Miller said in Washington on Wednesday.

As the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza roils the region, the US and other Western powers have been calling for a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in separate countries.

A two-state solution foresees the peaceful co-existence of Israel and a Palestinian state, based on the borders of the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel since 1967 - the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected demands for a Palestinian state, and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues to call for Israel's destruction.

Photo: EPA