March 3, 2000
Hanoi - Palestinians should be granted membership of the United Nations ahead of a deadline for a peace treaty with Israel, participants at a meeting held under UN auspices said on Friday.
The declaration was made in a statement issued after a three-day conference in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi called the "UN Asian Meeting on the Question of Palestine." It said "the United Nations should grant full membership to Palestine to enable it to participate fully in the United Nations Millennium Summit to be held on September 6."
A conference organiser said she believed it was the first time an actual timeframe had been sought for Palestinian admission by a UN-sponsored group. She stressed this was not a declaration from the United Nations itself. The UN Millennium Summit occurs one week before a September 13 deadline set for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a final peace treaty.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has said he might declare a Palestinian state if the two sides failed to agree on a final peace deal by then.
Israeli-Palestinian peace moves were suspended last month in a dispute over the transfer of additional West Bank land to the Palestinians. US mediator Dennis Ross failed to end the impasse in a week-long effort that ended on Monday.
Organisers of the Hanoi conference, which attracted a variety of speakers, said such meetings were usually held once a year in different parts of the world to raise awareness of the issues facing the Palestinian people. It was organised by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
The conference statement added that "Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, as well as other Arab territories, must be brought to an end without delay..." Continued building of Israeli settlements were a cause for concern and threatened to jeopardise the peace process, the statement added.
Both sides have traded accusations over responsibility for the crisis in the peace talks, with Palestinians accusing Israel of a "savage campaign of settlements."
Vietnam, host of the conference, has long supported the Palestinian cause.