U.S. vetoes resolution condemning Israel for UN

U.S. vetoes resolution condemning Israel for UN
deaths

By The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS - The United States vetoed an Arab-backed resolution that would have condemned Israel for the recent killings of three UN workers. The U.S. ambassador called the resolution one-sided and not conducive to Mideast peace efforts.

Twelve other council members - including close U.S. ally Britain - voted in favor of the resolution on Friday. Bulgaria and Cameroon abstained.

The resolution expressed "grave concern" at the killings by Israeli troops and demanded that Israel "refrain from the excessive and disproportionate use of force in the Occupied Palestinian territories." It also demanded that Israel comply fully with its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with the protection of civilians during war.

But the veto by the United States - one of five permanent council members with veto power - means that the resolution was not adopted. The last U.S. veto, in December 2001, was also cast against a Mideast resolution.

Syria's UN Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, the only Arab member of the council, rejected U.S. attempts to amend the resolution to eliminate the reference to Israel's disproportionate use of force. The United States also wanted to drop the demand for Israel to comply with the Fourth Geneva Convention.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the United States reserves the right to resubmit its draft next week.

Earlier, he called the Syrian draft a "one-sided" resolution "heaping criticism on one party." Speaking in the council just before the vote, he said the resolution's supporters "appear more intent on condemning Israeli occupation than on ensuring the safety of UN personnel."

Three workers for the UN agency that provides relief for Palestinian refugees, known as UNWRA, were killed in recent weeks.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed Iain Hook, of Britain, on Nov. 22 during a gunbattle with armed Palestinians in the West Bank. The army said its soldiers mistook a cell phone Hook was using for a weapon and that gunmen had entered the walled UN compound. The UN relief agency denies that gunmen had entered the compound.

Two Palestinian school employees working for UNRWA were among 10 Palestinians killed when Israeli troops conducted a raid into a crowded Gaza refugee camp on Dec. 6 hunting for militants.

UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the council Monday that the killings highlighted the larger issue that Israeli soldiers must "refrain from the excessive and disproportionate use of deadly force in civilian areas."

The U.S. veto came hours after top U.S., UN, European Union and Russian officials met in Washington to work on a roadmap to Israeli-Palestinian peace that would see two states living side by side in harmony and security.

"Adoption of this resolution does not contribute to an environment where both sides would be ready to move forward in implementing the practical steps in the roadmap," Negroponte said.

Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN envoy, said the Israeli attacks against UN staff reflect its defiance of international humanitarian law and he accused the United States of protecting Israel from Security Council condemnation.

The U.S. "bias" towards Israel "knows no limits even if this has to be at the expense of international law and at the expense of the lives of those who" work in humanitarian fields, he said.

Syria's Wehbe said it is not permissible "to give Israel the right to kill United Nations personnel without accountability or sanction."

Israel's deputy UN ambassador Aaron Jacob expressed regret for the deaths and accepted that attention must be paid to Israel's action. But he said "we cannot help but be distressed with what seems to be a singular attempt to focus on Israel."

The Syrian resolution also would have expressed "deep concern" at Israel's destruction of a UN World Food Program warehouse in Beit Lahiya, in the Gaza Strip, on Nov. 30 "in which 537 metric tons of donated food supplies intended for distribution to needy Palestinians had been stored."

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