|
Security Council Postpones Arab Request For Meeting
UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Security Council met briefly on Thursday to discuss an Arab request for a meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but agreed to postpone a decision after the United States opposed the idea.
"There was widespread agreement in the council that it was not appropriate to take a decision at this time... that we did require more time for reflection and consultation," this month's council president, James Cunningham, said.
Cunningham, acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said: "I expressed the national view that we don't think a meeting at this time would be helpful."
The United States wanted to "focus on the high-level contacts that are on-going," he said, without elaborating.
He said that if a council member submitted a draft resolution to the council and asked for it be put to the vote, he would use the U.S. power of veto to defeat it.
Almost 540 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since the violence exploded in Israel and the Palestinian territories in late September.
On Wednesday, the Arab group of states at the U.N. wrote to Cunningham to ask for an immediate council meeting "to discuss the continuous escalation of repressive practices against the Palestinian population by Israel, the occupying power, in addition to its policy of premeditated assassinations."
The letter was signed by the Palestinian observer to the UN, Nasser Al-Kidwa, president of the Arab group for the month of May.
Only one Arab state, Tunisia, currently holds a seat on the council, but the Palestinians traditionally have the support of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) states, which hold six other seats.
On March 27th, after five days and nights of negotiations, Cunningham vetoed a draft resolution sponsored by the NAM which would have authorized a U.N. observer force for the Palestinian territories.
The NAM said it had forced a vote out of "frustration" after other council members insisted on postponing action on a compromise West European text.
Asked whether the United States would veto a new resolution if one were put forward in the coming days, Cunningham replied:
"I think it is fair to say that we would not support a step like that; we would oppose a step like that."
One European diplomat surmised that the intention of the Arab states was not to push for action by the Security Council so much as to step up diplomatic pressure on Washington.
"I don't think we are going to get serious engagement on a resolution now; the United States tried that in March, and got slapped in the face," the diplomat said.
But, she said, the aim of the Arab group might be to bring pressure on the United States to endorse the Mitchell report into the causes of the violence.
The report, compiled by a commission of inquiry under former U.S. senator George Mitchell, has called for a total freeze of Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territories and has criticized Israel's "excessive" use of force against unarmed demonstrators.
In a letter to the U.S. Congress on Thursday, Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo urged U.S. lawmakers to endorse the report in its entirety.
"On behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, I ... ask for your support in implementing the committee's recommendations in their entirety," Rabbo said.
The report "offers a sensible and coherent foundation for resolving the current crisis and preparing a path back to meaningful negotiation," he said, but "selective application" of its recommendations would only undermine the chance for peace.
"We fully support the immediate implementation of all the committee's recommendations as a comprehensive package."
"U.S. involvement will be necessary to continue the positive momentum begun with this report, and the Palestinians look forward to work with the administration and the members of Congress to achieve the goal of reducing violence and returning to serious negotiations on final status issues."
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday warned it would reject any changes in the document's recommendations.
Israel has called the report "constructive and positive" but rejected its call for a settlement freeze and its criticism of "excessive" use of force against unarmed demonstrators.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has hailed the Mitchell report, saying it could "give us a launch pad to start a new initiative."
The panel was established in Egypt in October at the start of the Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which to date has claimed almost 540 lives, the vast majority of them Palestinian.
Going against recent Israeli refusals to end expansion of settlements, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres offered Thursday to impose strict controls on construction of Jewish settlements and ban the seizure of Palestinian lands, following the Mitchell commission report.
"We do not have any territorial appetite around the settlement areas. We are suspected of wanting to grab these lands for our settlements, although this is not our intention," Peres told Israel's Channel Two television.
"We must find a compromise between the different positions. I hope that this is possible, but it will be neither simple nor easy," he added, alluding to the call by the Mitchell commission for a complete freeze on settlement construction.
Peres' plan would put a freeze on Israel seizing any new lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and a stricter policy on new construction within existing settlements.
The television said Peres is floating his compromise initiative with the approval of hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The television said Peres would try to persuade the United States to adopt his proposal before Washington releases its position on the final report of the Mitchell commission, which called for a complete freeze on settlement construction.
Sharon, however, has rejected a complete freeze, citing the need to allow for "natural growth" in the settlements.
Benny Elon, an MP from the extreme right-wing National Union party, which is part of Sharon's coalition, warned that, "our party will never stay in a government that freezes settlements and cedes territory to the Palestinians."
Uri Ariel, a leader of settlers in the occupied territories, also denounced Peres' initiative.
"We will never accept living in a ghetto within Eretz Israel [Greater Israel]," he told the television.
There are an estimated 200,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The settlements have often served as flashpoints in the violence that has killed more than 530 people.
|
