The criteria for membership. Of the 15 council members, 12 voted yes while britain and switzerland abstained. We agree that the people of the West Bank And Gaza must be given the political perspective of a credible route to a Palestinian State and a new future, and it needs to be irreversible. This is not entirely in our gift but our recognition of a Palestinian State should be part of it. We believe that such recognition of Palestinian Statehood should not come at the start of a new process but it doesnt have to be at the very end of the process. The palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the us veto as quote unfair, unethical and unjustified, saying in a statement that it challenged the will of the international community, which strongly supports palestine s full membership. The push to recognise its statehood comes after more than six months of war in gaza while israel continues expanding settlements in the occupied west bank. Thats a move widely considered a violation of int
to the generals, we want to thank you for to the generals, we want to thank you for ensuring peace and stability during you for ensuring peace and stability during voting and we must also thank the home during voting and we must also thank the home affairs staff and officials who ensured that as many voters as possible who ensured that as many voters as possible had their identity documents on election day. thank you very n1ucir documents on election day. thank you very much to documents on election day. thank you very much to you as well. applause i would also like to extend our national i would also like to extend our national gratitude to the independent candidates and leaders and members of various political parties and members of various political parties that participated in the elections. i wish to thank all the elections. iwish to thank all the iocei elections. i wish to thank all the local and elections. i wish to thank all the local and international
welcome to the programme. we start this hour with the latest on the uk general election. the leader of the scottish national party, john swinney, has launched his party s campaign ahead of the vote onjuly the 4th. at an election rally in glasgow, mr swinney pushed for independence, celebrated his party s record on fighting the cost of living as well as attacking both the conservatives and labour. he said people in scotland wanted rid of a disastrous tory government, and he accused labour of giving an awfully good impression of them. let s take a listen to some of what the snp leader said. look, there are some people telling me to forget about independence at this election. but you know what? after looking at sir keir starmer s serial u turns in the pursuit of power, i think people are crying out for political leadership that sticks to its principles. applause ..for leaders who argue for what they believe in. and i passionately believe independence is the best opportunity
hello. i m anna foster. let s start in the middle east, where israel s opposition leader has urged the prime minister to accept a proposal unveiled by president biden aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire in gaza. yair lapid says if right wing members of benjamin netanyahu s coalition resigned in protest, his party would continue to support the government. it is unclear what that would mean in practice. it comes as mr netanyahu says israel will continue to focus on the destruction of hamas and the freeing of all hostages. he was responding to a three phase proposalfrom presidentjoe biden who says hamas is no longer capable of launching another october the seventh style attack on israel. meanwhile, egyptian state linked tv is reporting a meeting between egyptian, us and israeli officials will take place on sunday to discuss the re opening of the rafah crossing. a short time ago, i spoke with the uk s foreign secretary, lord cameron. i began by asking him what this deal conta
if forces entered rafah s population centres or launched a major ground operation. hugo bachega has more. the remarks by the israeli national security adviser appeared to reject the idea that we could be near the end of the war in gaza. he said fighting might continue for at least the rest of the year although he didn t give details about how intense the conflict might be. now all eyes are on rafah, near the border with egypt. the israeli authorities say it is vital to enter the city because they believe four hamas battalions are still operating there. but israel is under a lot of international pressure to limit its operations in the city to minimise civilian casualties, and officials are describing what s happening there as a limited operation . still, scores of palestinians have been killed in recent days, and the un says more than one million people have fled rafah because they are concerned that the israeli military may launch a full scale operation. virtually everyo