U.S. Vetoes Arafat Resolution, Palestinians Irked

Eleven of the 15 Council nations voted in favor of the measure, which was sponsored by Syria, the Council’s only Arab member, at the request of the Palestinians, while Britain, Bulgaria and Germany abstained, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Arguing the draft took no steps to tackle Palestinian resistance groups, the U.S. used its veto power despite a chorus of rage over the threat to force the Palestinian leader out of the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We will not support any (draft) resolution that evades the explicit threat to the Middle East peace process posed by Hamas and other such terrorist groups," argued John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

In an emergency meeting on Thursday, September 11, under Premier Ariel Sharon, the Israeli security cabinet agreed by majority to outline a plan to expel Arafat.

The United States wanted specific language in the draft denouncing Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed offshoot of Fatah.

Negroponte said the draft was "flawed" because it did not include a "robust condemnation of acts of terrorism" by Palestinian resistance, said the BBC News Online.

The draft resolution had demanded Israel to "desist from any act of deportation and cease any threat to the safety of the elected president of the Palestinian Authority."

British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, however, cautioned the veto should not lead Israel to "misunderstand the international community’s unanimous rejection of their decision in principle to remove President Arafat."

Tuesday’s vote followed hours of unusually harsh mudslinging when Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. representative, walked out during the address by Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the Council.

The Bush administration used its veto power to curtail U.N. moves to condemn Israel for 24 times, the last one in December of last year.

The council’s schism also came as senior U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the Council Monday that the Mideast peace process was at a standstill and laid much of the blame on Israel.

‘ Black Day’

The veto, in the meanwhile, was condemned by the Palestinians and Arab diplomats in the world body.

Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Saeb Erekat described the veto as "a black day" for the U.N. and said he hoped Israel would not interpret it as a "license to kill," said the BBC.

Senior Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP the veto would make it more difficult to implement the so-called roadmap, an international peace plan aimed at creating a Palestinian state by 2005.

Islamic Jihad’s Mohammad al-Hindi said the U.S. veto "proves that the Americans only see our region through Zionist eyes."

For his part, al-Kidwa warned that "serious consequences could follow this veto and the United States alone bears the responsibility for that."

Fayssal Mekdad, a Syrian diplomat, dismissed the veto as "regrettable" because "it only complicates a situation in the Middle East that is already extraordinarily complicated."

The veto came after Israel spurned Tuesday a new Palestinian ceasefire proposal and assassinated an Islamic Jihad activist.