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“The United Nations can do what it wants, but Israel will continue the operation until its aims are achieved,” an Israeli official said.
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GAZA
CITY, September 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Palestinian
leadership on Tuesday, September 24, welcomed a U.N. resolution
calling on Israel to end its siege of President Yasser Arafat’s
base, but said this time the Security Council must push Israel to
implement the decision, a top Arafat aide said.
“We
welcome this decision, this is a step in the right direction but the
important thing is to insist that Israeli implement it and withdraws
immediately” from Arafat’s West Bank headquarters in Ramallah,
Nabil Abu Rudeina told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“An
Israeli withdrawal is the real test of this decision and we urge the
Security Council to push Israel to implement this and other
resolutions” calling for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied
Palestinian land, he said.
Israel
had however already said it would defy the resolution, with a
government official insisting the siege which began last Thursday
after two bomb attacks in 24 hours would not end until Arafat hands
over some 20 wanted Palestinians holed up inside his headquarters.
“The
United Nations can do what it wants, but Israel will continue the
operation until its aims are achieved,” the official told AFP on
condition he not be named.
“Either
Arafat leaves his headquarters or the terrorists holed up there hand
themselves over,” the official said.
Earlier,
Palestinian representative to the U.N. Nasser Al-Kidwa asked the U.N.
council to adopt “a clear resolution” demanding Israel immediately
lift its siege of Arafat’s headquarters.
However
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the United States “will not
support the adoption of a one-sided text that fails to recognize that
this conflict has two sides” and called on the council also to
condemn Palestinian bomb attacks.
Aides
to Negroponte later circulated an alternative draft resolution calling
on the Palestinian Authority “to implement its expressed commitment
to ensure that those responsible for terrorist acts are brought to
justice.”
Arab
diplomats rejected an alternative U.S. draft which condemned two
suicide bombings that took place in Israel on Wednesday and Thursday.
The
U.S. text declared that the groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which
claimed responsibility for the attacks, came under Security Council
Resolution 1373, passed after the September 11 attacks on the United
States.
Resolution
1373, backed by the threat of sanctions or military force, imposed
sweeping obligations on all governments to deny financing, support and
safe harbor for terrorists.
The
U.S. draft also recalled the 1997 International Convention for the
Suppression of Terrorist Bombings.
These
two paragraphs were dropped from the European proposals, drafted by
France and Norway. But the compromise draft retained U.S. language
calling on the Palestinian Authority “to implement its expressed
commitment to ensure that those responsible for terrorist acts are
brought to justice.”
Earlier,
in Cairo, the 22-member Arab League called on the U.N. and its
secretary general, Kofi Annan, to “step in immediately to stop the
continuing Israeli barbaric aggression” against the Palestinians.
Annan
began the council meeting with an appeal to Israelis and Palestinians
to abandon the “bankrupt policy” of trying to force each other to
capitulate.
“The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not going to be resolved by military
might alone, or by violent means of any kind,” Annan said.
Chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that he feared for
Arafat’s safety. “I saw the situation is very bad and very
dangerous inside,” Erakat complained in a phone conversation with
AFP, referring to fears the building could collapse.
The
73-year-old leader delivered a defiant speech by telephone Monday to
some 3,000 Palestinian students who gathered at Bethlehem university
to demonstrate their support.
“The
situation is dangerous, but the people can face all dangers. The
Palestinian people has seen more dangerous situations than this and
won,” Arafat said from his besieged headquarters.
The
Greek government announced that delegates from the United States as
well as the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - the
so-called quartet - were headed to the region Monday.
Greek
Foreign Minister George Papandreou said his Danish counterpart Per
Stig Moeller, whose country currently holds the rotating E.U.
presidency, had told him the aim of the quartet’s visit was to
“ensure Israel’s security and the creation of a Palestinian
state.”
“There
are extremist political forces on both sides which do not want the
peace process,” Papandreou said.
