West Bank, May 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The disbanding of a UN mission to the Jenin refugee camp is a ‘disaster’ for Palestinians and confirms Israel as a country above the law, thanks to unlimited U.S. support, officials and press in the region warned Thursday.

"It is a disaster. We wanted the commission to make sure these war crimes will not reoccur," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Disbanding the fact-finding commission is a license for (Israeli Premier Ariel) Sharon and his government to do it again, to commit more massacres, to commit more war crimes," Erakat said.

The UN Security Council was due to resume later Thursday discussions on an appropriate response to Secretary General Kofi Annan's decision to scrap the Jenin mission because of Israel's refusal to cooperate with it.

Annan himself was blasted by Lebanon Thursday for such an unprecedented move.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud denounced the "dangerous surrender" of the UN chief when he scrapped a probe mission to the Palestinian refugee camp because Israel refused to cooperate with it.

"It is a dangerous surrender of the United Nations before Israel which once more did not care about the international will, represented by the (UN) Security Council," said Lahoud in a statement.

"The cancellation of the UN mission did not only have a negative impact on the credibility of the international organization, but is also dangerous because it gives Israel the right to veto international resolutions," he said, AFP reported.

"It is very painful and unacceptable that the big powers, particularly the Security Council permanent members, allow Israel to impose its will on the world," he added.

Newspapers and political analysts in the region, meanwhile, were infuriated by the scrapping of the mission, and lashed out at the world’s big countries, particularly the U.S.

"It appears Israel has forcibly joined the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and now has the veto power," said Al-Watan daily newspaper of Saudi Arabia.

The paper, reflecting the official point of view, charged that Israel had so far succeeded in challenging the will of the international community, thanks to unlimited support from the United States.

"The entire exercise has proven to be nothing but an affront to the United Nations. The very prestige of the world body is now at stake," said the Saudi English-language Riyadh Daily.

Warning of "more Israeli provocations", the paper added that "neither the United States nor the United Nations nor others seem capable of curbing Israel. In fact it is Israel that is imposing its vision on the UN."

"Israel provided further proof that it is an entity above the law," Dubai's Al-Bayan said, warning against "U.S. bias towards the terrorist Israeli state."

For Oman newspaper, "Israel's persistence in its negligence towards international law is explained by Washington's manifest bias towards the Jewish state."

It urged Arabs to face up to it "by all forms of solidarity and by closing ranks."

In Baghdad, Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, said the Security Council's silence was a "flagrant example of its policy of double standards.

"This Council represents not the United Nations but the interests of the colonizing West," it said. "How can we now respect the Council when it doesn't respect its own resolutions?"

Editorialist Massud Henawy wrote in the Egyptian state-run daily newspaper Al-Ahram that "what happened is an infamy for the United Nations, international law and the whole world.

"This proves that Israel is a state above the law, protected by the United States, and that it grants UN resolutions no importance," he said.

The editor-in-chief of the Egyptian daily newspaper, also state-run, Al-Akhbar, Galal Dewidar, said the U.S. administration was "unfortunately always ready to give up on its promises and commitments towards justice to please the Jewish lobby in Washington and the gang of Ariel Sharon in Tel Aviv."

Not only in the Middle East that Annan, Israel and the dangerous UN weakness before a member state came under fire, but other voices worldwide cried to the same effect, especially in Europe.

In Paris, France lamented Annan's decision to disband the Jenin fact-finding mission.

"France regrets this outcome," foreign ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau told a press conference. "It was in everyone's interest that this team shed light on what happened in Jenin."

The spokesman noted that officials in Paris nonetheless understood Annan's decision in light of the "stalling tactics and, in fact, the refusal of the Israeli government to allow the team ... to conduct its mission."

And in Brussels, the disbanding of the UN mission to Jenin was dubbed ‘highly regrettable,’ according to the European Commission external relations spokesman Gunnar Wiegand.

During a daily press briefing, Wiegand said the issue would likely come up during the EU-U.S. summit in Washington later Thursday, as well as at a meeting of the Middle East "quartet" in the U.S. capital.

The quartet, which is coordinating diplomatic efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Annan gave up his efforts Wednesday night to send the mission to Jenin refugee camp. In a letter to the Security Council, he said the proposed three-person team would be disbanded Thursday.

"It seems evident that the team will not be able to proceed to the area to begin its mission in the near future," Annan said.

• Faced With Israeli Refusal, Annan Mulls Disbanding Jenin Fact-finding Team