 |
| Annan -
"profoundly disturbed" by increasing tensions in
Middle East |
UNITED
NATIONS, March 13 (News Agencies) - In a historic vote, the UN
Security Council late Tuesday for the first time adopted a
resolution specifically mentioning a Palestinian state, while Syria,
the only Arab state on the council, abstained, news agencies
reported.
The
council welcomed Saudi proposals for ending the Arab-Israeli
conflict. The resolution was sponsored by the United States, which
had vetoed previous Palestinian-inspired attempts to get the council
to curb the actions of the Israeli armed forces in the 18-month-old
uprising in the occupied territories, reported Agence
France–Presse (AFP).
The
resolution was passed by 14 votes to none, minutes before midnight
in New York. Syria, the sole Arab state with a seat on the council,
abstained on the grounds that the text did not mention the
occupation, but put "the killer and the victim on an equal
footing".
But
both the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Nasser
Al-Kidwa, and the Israeli ambassador, Yehuda Lancry, welcomed the
text, adopted as Resolution 1397.
The
vote came at the end of one the bloodiest days of the uprising,
which is now estimated to have claimed 1,513 lives, including 1,168
Palestinians and 339 Israelis. Increase in Israeli aggression over
the past 10 days in particular prompted UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan to call for a public meeting of the council early Tuesday at
which he made his strongest statement to date on the crisis.
Annan
said he was "profoundly disturbed" both by Israel's
increasing use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas and by
Palestinian martyr operations.
Such
attacks were "morally repugnant" and weakened
international support for the Palestinians' inalienable right to a
viable state, he said, while Israel's "illegal occupation"
of Palestinian land and the bombing of civilian areas undermined its
right to live in secure borders.
Annan's
spokesman said it was the first time the secretary general had used
the expression "illegal occupation" in a statement to the
council.
The
council resolution began by "affirming a vision of a region
where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within
secure and recognized borders."
It
went on to "demand the immediate cessation of all acts of
violence, including acts of terror, provocation, incitement and
destruction."
It
called upon Israelis and Palestinians to "cooperate in the
implementation of the Tenet work plan and Mitchell Report
recommendations with the aim of resuming negotiations on a political
settlement."
It
also welcomed "the contribution of Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah," who has proposed that Arab states offer
"complete peace" in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal
from occupied Arab land.
The
Saudi proposal is expected to be high on the agenda at the March
27-28 Arab summit in Beirut, and Amr Moussa, secretary general of
the Arab League, has described it as a "last chance for
peace" with Israel.
Annan
had urged Arab heads of state "not to give up on the search for
peace but rather to unite in support of this vision." Al-Kidwa
said the council resolution would "will help the situation on
the ground." It was "indeed significant" that the
United States had sponsored the text, he said.
The
U.S. ambassador, John Negroponte, said the United States had opposed
previous resolutions because they "demonstrated a one-sided
tendency to favor the Palestinian point of view and to isolate
Israel". The new text contained a "strong statement
against terrorism" and would "give an impulse to peace
efforts" which chiefly the Israelis and the Palestinians
themselves must undertake, he said.
Palestinian
government secretary general Ahmed Abdel Rahman said Wednesday that
the resolution marks an “advance”. "It's an advance for the
resistance of the Palestinian people, which the government of
(Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon does not recognize by trying
to eliminate the national Authority," he told Qatar's
Al-Jazeera satellite television.
The
resolution, sponsored by the United States, provides "strong
international backing to the valiant resistance of the Palestinian
people in the face of the Israeli war machine," Abdel Rahman
said shortly after the vote in New York.
The
secretary general noted that U.S. President George Bush had declared
his vision of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in an address to
the UN general assembly at the end of 2001.
By
supporting Resolution 1397, the United States had "adapted its
attitude and joined international legality, which opens the way to
security, stability ... of which the Palestinian state will be the
guarantor," Abdel Rahman said in a live interview from the
occupied territories. "A mechanism obliging the implementation
of the resolution," by Israel was now required, he added.
