Kuwait support for Palestine\'s UN membership

The State of Kuwait has renewed its support for Palestine in the bid to win full membership of the United Nations as a preliminary step toward reaching a just and permanent settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli strife. Hamad Ibrahim Al-Salloum, the Second Secretary of the Kuwaiti mission at the UN, affirmed Kuwait\'s support for the Palestinians\' aspiration to self-determination and attaining full and legitimate political rights, namely establishment of the independent state on their territories with East Jerusalem as its capital. Al-Salloum, who was addressing the UN Commission for Political Rights and Decolonization, held as part of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, called on the powers sponsoring the Middle East peace process to put an end to Israel\'s \"criminal acts, perpetrated in violation of international covenants and treaties.\" The State of Kuwait has recently followed up with relief on Palestine\'s success in attaining full membership at the UNESCO. \"We congratulate our Palestinian brothers on this historic victory for their just cause,\" he said. He called on the international community, namely the Security Council, to shoulder its responsibilities, as stipulated by the UN charter, to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict which \"constitutes main threat to security and peace in the Middle east.\" The Kuwaiti diplomat called on the influential powers to coerce Israel halt \"criminal acts\" against the Palestinians and urged for protection of the unarmed Palestinians in the occupied territories. Branding Israel\'s settlement policy as an obstacle in the face of the peace efforts, Al-Salloum said Tel Aviv\'s intransigence, procrastination and defiance vis a vis resolutions of the international legitimacy and laws, as well as its violation of relevant UN resolutions, \"are practices aimed at maintaining the occupation and altering the social and demographic features of the occupied territories.\" Israel\'s recent decision to build 2,000 settlement units constituted yet another evidence of its non-seriousness regarding the peace option, the Kuwaiti Second Secretary added. Kuwaiti is concerned as a result of continuing construction of settlements, in shadow of acts of harassment and abuse by the occupation forces, he said, re-affirming support for the Palestinian people in their struggle to attain their legitimate political right for establishing the independent state on their territories. He praised recent release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons, called for freeing remaining inmates and dispatching an international panel to Israel to investigate condition of Palestinians held behind bars. He condemned the continuing \"illegal and inhuman siege of Gaza Strip,\" which constitutes breach of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention and relevant UN resolutions. As to Israel\'s occupation of other Arab lands, Salloum renewed the call for its pullout from the Syrian Golan and the Lebanese territories. He also urged Israel to abide by recommendations of the UN commission, and called on the super powers to coerce Israel respond to initiatives intended to restore peace to the Middle East.