New York, 19 April 2024 (dpa/MIA) - A resolution in favour of the full membership of a Palestinian state in the United Nations has failed in the UN Security Council due to a veto by the United States.

Twelve member states voted in favour of the resolution in New York on Thursday, with Switzerland and Britain abstaining. The veto by the US, which is a permanent member of the most powerful UN body, meant that the draft resolution failed to be adopted.

In early April, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour wrote a letter to UN chief António Guterres asking for the motion, which had already been tabled in 2011 but failed to be adopted, to be resubmitted to the Security Council.

A Security Council committee examined the motion but was unable to agree on a unified response. Algeria then put the resolution to a vote anyway.

In order to be successful, at least nine of the 15 Security Council members would have had to vote in favour, and there needed not to be a veto from any of the five permanent Council members - China, France, Russia, Britain and the US.

If successful, the motion would have had to be referred to the UN General Assembly for a vote, where a two-thirds majority would have been required.

The US government's position is that an agreement with Israel on a two-state solution is a prerequisite for recognizing Palestine's full UN membership.

At a meeting of the Security Council on Thursday morning, Mansour had strongly advocated the adoption of the resolution, while his Israeli counterpart Gilad Erdan issued a sharp warning against it.

Immediately after the vote, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised the US veto. Recognizing a Palestinian state six months after the massacre on October 7 last year would be a "reward for terrorism" carried out by Palestinian militant organization Hamas, he wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

A year after the Palestinians' 2011 application for full UN membership failed at the Security Council, the United Nations granted the Palestinians observer status. Of the 193 UN member states, 139 have so far recognized Palestine as an independent state. Germany and the US are not among them.