New York: The biggest bloc of developing countries at the United Nations has chosen the observer state of Palestine as its next leader, the Palestinian ambassador said Tuesday, a decision that could cause new tensions with Israel and the United States.
The ambassador, Riyad Mansour, said Palestine would take over leadership of the bloc, known as the Group of 77, from Egypt, starting in January.
Originally 77 countries when formed in 1964, the bloc’s membership has nearly doubled in size. The bloc often speaks as one voice in the General Assembly and represents more than 80 per cent of the world’s population.
“We will be negotiating on behalf of 135 countries,” Mansour said, a total that would include his own delegation.
Symbolically at least, the choice of Palestine as the Group of 77’s leader is a diplomatic rejoinder to Israel and the United States in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a political advance for the Palestinians.
Israel and the United States, Israel’s most important ally, have argued that the status of the Palestinians at the United Nations does not mean that there is an independent state of Palestine, and that only direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians can achieve such an outcome.
Read the article by Rick Gladstone in The Sydney Morning Herald (from the New York Times).