NEW YORK: Kuwait's deputy permanent delegate to the UN Bader Al-Munaikh speaks during a UN general assembly session on Tuesday. - KUNA

NEW YORK: Nations should be allowed to decide their own fate based on principles and values embedded in UN resolutions, a Kuwaiti diplomat said, saying such rights are legitimate and cannot be taken away. Citing the Palestinians as a case in point, Kuwait's deputy permanent delegate to the UN Bader Al-Munaikh told a UN general assembly session on Tuesday that the Palestinians have full-fledged political rights to determine their own fate.

He lamented that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been exposed to a "political attack" that imperils its core objectives, in addition to the COVID pandemic, which impeded most of the aid agency's work.

UNRWA will always have Kuwait's firm backing, the diplomat highlighted, mentioning a $20 million grant deal signed between both sides to keep the UN agency's aid programs for the Palestinians afloat, ahead of Belgium-hosted talks over the matter next month. He reiterated calls for the Palestinians' inalienable right to an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on 1967 borders, as supported by relevant UN resolutions, which back a two-state solution as the only way for peace in the Middle East. - KUNA