Pretoria - The South African government has called on the United Nations to settle Palestine's bid for full membership in the world body.
Mindful of the political sensitivities inherent in this process, the International Relations department reiterated South Africa's support for the bid, citing that it should be respected that Palestine is a state and willing and able to carry out its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations.
"South Africa believes that the issue of Palestine's UN membership should be resolved expeditiously and in accordance with the provisions of the Charter; the relevant Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly; and the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council. Above all, South Africa believes that we cannot make Palestine's membership to the UN conditional upon a peace agreement," Ministry spokesperson Clayson Monyela said on Tuesday.
Palestine currently has observer status at the UN, which allows representatives to attend meetings and deliver speeches, but cannot vote. The country made a formal application to the body in September.
However, the US and Israel have strongly opposed the bid, saying both sides need to make compromises to break the current deadlock rather than the UN.
South Africa also welcomed a proposal for new peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine brokered by the Mideast Quartet which has called for an agreement before the proposed deadline of end 2012.
However, Pretoria cautioned that while there where concrete timeframes for these negotiations before, however, every time the parties have fallen short of an agreement within a given timeframe.
"We hope that the parties will this time commit themselves to finding a solution even earlier than the envisaged end of 2012. We also call on those countries that have influence on the parties to encourage them to participate in the negotiations in good faith without preconditions or changing the parameters of a final outcome," said Monyela.
As it is, the single major obstacle to the negotiations is clearly the incessant building of illegal settlements by Israel.
Meanwhile, Pretoria welcomed the recent agreement on prisoner swaps, which has been described by many as positive step towards greater cooperation.
It urged the Israeli government to fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian law with regard to the remainder of Palestinian political prisoners by ensuring their safety; allowing access to them by family members and respecting the basic human rights of the prisoners.
