Thanks for your quick and polite response If you ll pardon an ignorant follow up question does the UN have any Embassies I couldn t locate anything specifically called an Embassy at the UN wesite Also your link to diplomatic mission yields the following line A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter governmental organization such as the United Nations present in another state to represent the sending state organization in the receiving state Emphasis added Since Palestine is not an international inter governmental organization doesn t it follow that to the States which house Palestinian Embassies at least Palestine is a State Is Palestine an exception to this What exactly are the criteria for statehood Are these criteria universally accepted by all States