The US vetoed yesterday a UN Security Council draft resolution
calling for an end to Israeli attacks and "disproportionate use of
force" in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution, sponsored by Qatar on behalf of Arab nations,
received 10 votes, one against from the US with four abstentions,
including Britain, Peru, Slovakia and Denmark. France, a permanent
member of the council, voted in favor.
Addressing the council after the vote, John Bolton, US
ambassador to the UN, described Qatar's text as "unbalanced" and
was "not only untimely but also outmoded." He said adoption of the
resolution would have "exacerbated tensions in the region" and
would have undermined the vision of "two democratic states, Israel
and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."
The draft was reworked repeatedly to address concerns that it
was too biased against Israel. Language was added calling for the
release of an abducted Israeli soldier and urging the Palestinians
to stop firing rockets at Israel.
The latest version calls on Israel to "halt its military
operations and its disproportionate use of force that endanger the
Palestinian civilian population and to withdraw its forces to their
original positions outside the Gaza Strip."
It also calls for the "immediate and unconditional" release of
the abducted Israel soldier and urges Israel to immediately and
unconditionally release all detained Palestinian ministers."
The Palestinian observer to the UN Riyad Mansour said he was
disappointed that the resolution was not adopted despite the
tremendous efforts on the part of the sponsors. He called Qatar's
resolution "extremely balanced" with sponsors spending a lot of
time and trying to accommodate the positions and wishes of all
parties.
He also deplored US veto to block the resolution that would have
called Israel to end military attack in the region.
"The repeated failure of the council to act can only prolong the
conflict rather than end this vicious cycle of violence," he
said.
The US campaigned hard in the last several days for other
nations on the 15-member council to either vote against the
resolution or abstain. But those efforts failed and it had to cast
the veto to keep the draft from being adopted.
While calling the draft "unbalanced," Britain's UN Ambassador
Emyr Jones-Parry said he backed the draft's claim that Israel's
response was disproportionate.
"While Israel has every right to act in self-defense, it should
do so in a way which does not escalate the situation and which is
proportionate and measured, which conforms to international law and
avoids civilian deaths and suffering," he said.
The UN vote came as Israeli air strikes hit the Palestinian
Foreign Ministry in Gaza Thursday, which caused heavy damage and
wounded 10 children.
The attack also came just hours before Israel bombed Beirut's
international airport and killed at least 40 Lebanese, opening a
new front in the Middle East crisis.
A total of 75 Palestinians have now been killed since Israel
stepped up its ground offensive just over a week ago, moving troops
into areas evacuated less than 10 months ago as part of an historic
pullout from Gaza after 38 years.
The US, Israel's staunchest ally, last used its veto in the
Security Council in October 2004, to block a similar draft
demanding that Israel end all military operations in northern Gaza
and withdraw from the area. Eight of the last nine vetoes in the
council have been cast by the US, with seven of them related to the
Israel-Palestinian conflict.
(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)
