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Empasse Palestina, si aggiunge anche il Vaticano
maannews.net - Reuters - 04/07/2012 - "Without the United States, the world's biggest arms supplier, it would be hard to get a meaningful treaty out of this conference," a Latin American diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Israel is also a major arms supplier. In the end, the Palestinians and the Vatican delegation, which also wanted full participation rights, reluctantly accepted the right to sit at the front of the negotiating hall next to Argentina, but without the right to participate as states with voting rights in the consensus-based talks. The US delegation was "pleased that a solution agreeable to all parties was reached that would allow the negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty to begin," said Kurtis Cooper, a spokesman for the US mission. alarabiya.net - 03 July 2012 - Talks among the 193 United Nations members were meant to have started on Monday morning and gone on until July 27 to come up with a draft arms trade treaty. However, tense negotiations over the Palestinian representation came to a head in the hours before the start. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called off his opening speech and it was not clear when the talks would begin, according to AFP. Arab nations have demanded that the Palestinians, who have been seeking to bolster their international presence, get a place at the conference. The Arab group said the European Union should not be allowed at the talks if the Palestinians do not get a place, diplomats said. “The Egyptians, acting for the Arab group, have held up the conference. They insisted that the Palestinians take part,” said one Arab diplomat. The Palestinians are observers at the U.N. and the European Union has super-observer status. The Vatican, which is also a U.N. observer, has said it should also take part if the Palestinians get their way, diplomats said.
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