The United States on Tuesday night vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding that Israel neither harm nor expel the Palestinian authority president, Yasser Arafat.
The US veto flew in the face of the UN Security Council, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion. Eleven members gave their backing and three — Britain, Germany and Bulgaria — abstained.
The decision to exercise the veto sparked anger among the Palestinians. The authority’s chief peace negotiator said he hoped Israel would not take the American action as a ”licence to kill” Arafat.
Syria, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, tabled the resolution after last week’s statement from Israel’s security cabinet that it intended to ”remove” Arafat.
John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the UN, said it did not support the assassination or forced exile of Arafat. But it had vetoed the resolution because it failed to condemn groups such as Hamas, which it blames for promoting terrorism.
”The Palestinian authority must take action to remove the threat of terrorist groups,” he said.
The US said the wording of the resolution did not promote the road map to peace, which has been backed by the US, the UN and Europe.
Discussions on the resolution have been taking place over two days. Almost all of the delegates condemned the comments by the Israelis regarding Arafat. On Monday, Britain proposed a number of amendments that were rejected by Syria.
Syria’s UN ambassador, Fayssal Mekdad, expressed regret at the result of the vote, calling the resolution ”highly balanced” and noting that most of the language came from previous resolutions adopted by the Security Council.
”The fact that the US delegation used its veto is something extremely regrettable,” he said. ”It only complicates a situation in the Middle East that is already very complicated.”
Last Friday, the 15 council members — including the US — agreed on a press statement expressing ”the view that the removal of chairman Arafat would be unhelpful and should not be implemented”.
Predictably, the UN vote and veto brought condemnation from each side.
Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, said the US had lost its credibility to play an honest broker in the peace process.
Ra’anan Gissin, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the UN ”has shown time and time again its duplicity and hypocrisy” with not a single resolution condemning the 120 suicide bombers in the last three years. — Guardian Unlimited Â