The Palestinians will not accept anything less than full United Nations membership and do not want an upgrade to an observer state in the world body, the foreign minister said on Thursday. Riyad al-Malki's remarks suggested the Palestinians would not seek such an upgrade once their bid for full state membership meets the fate widely expected for it -- failure because of opposition from the United States, among other governments. “We do not want, after all of these struggles, sacrifices, and efforts by the entire Palestinian people, to accept an observer state in the United Nations. We will not accept less than we deserve: a full member state,” he said. The Palestinians now hold the status of an observer entity at the United Nations. Their bid for statehood recognition has drawn fierce criticism and sanctions from the United States and Israel, which in 1967 captured territory the Palestinians now seek for a state. Peace talks collapsed last year. The US Congress has frozen some $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority over its statehood quest. Israel this week froze duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in response to its admission to the UN cultural agency UNESCO. Malki said for now the Palestinians would not seek to join more UN agencies as a full member. “At this moment, we are not concerned with applying for membership for Palestine in the rest of the international organisations,” he told journalists in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. UNESCO's vote in favor of Palestinian membership triggered an automatic cutoff in US funding to the agency under US law.
