December 15, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 29, 1422

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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14: Arab Nations on Thursday called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to hold a public debate and a vote on a proposed resolution which demands an end to the violence in the Middle East and international monitoring to help in cooling the volatile situation.

Tunisia, the only Arab country on the 15-member Security Council, introduced a draft resolution that included a “monitoring mechanism” to improve the situation on the ground. It said there had been a “dangerous deterioration” in the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Security Council met late on Thursday behind closed doors to discuss the request, initiated by the Palestinians. Members decided to consult again late on Friday afternoon before deciding whether to have a public debate.

The Palestinian UN envoy, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said Arab nations want a public meeting and a vote on the resolution on Friday. “There was no objection to the meeting” and there was “broad support” for a resolution, he said.

But the United States which blocked three previous attempts by the Palestinians to win council approval of a resolution calling for international observers or monitoring mechanism said the US position has not changed.

The US Ambassador James Cunningham said the United States did not object to an open meeting, though he added, “I don’t see what good it will do.” He also complained that the resolution was “completely disconnected from the reality on the ground” and ignored the main issue driving the violence — the terrorist attacks.

“We’ve made quite clear for a couple of days now that the primary thing that has to happen to allow movement to take place is that the terrorism needs to stop. It’s directed at both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and at the negotiating process,” Cunningham said.

What really matters, he said, are the discussions that US envoy Anthony Zinni is holding in the area. “He’s hard at work trying to generate some real movement,” Cunningham said.

Palestinian observer, Al-Kidwa said the Palestinians have “no problem in principle” in including the issue of terrorism as long as it is properly defined “and as long as we’re also talking about Israeli war crimes, about extrajudicial executions, about closures, about excessive and indiscriminate use of force.”

The Arab Group at the United Nations requested the council meeting after Israel cut contacts with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and launched new military strikes against Palestinian police buildings.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan reiterated his call for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “to take decisive action against those responsible for such terrible acts,” said UN deputy spokesman Manuel de Almeida e Silva. Al-Kidwa said the Palestinians also believe they must do more to end the violence. But Israel’s continuing military campaign against Palestinian Authority buildings, especially the security apparatus, “practically makes this impossible,” he said.

The other problem, he said, is that “the Israeli government effectively took the position of renouncing the process of negotiations and renouncing any serious potential for peace in the Middle East.” Al-Kidwa agreed with those who have said Palestinians need to do more to rein in the Islamic militant group Hamas. “We also believe we have to do more in this regard. The question is how you do that?” he said.

But he put the blame squarely on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his government, saying the ongoing attacks on the Palestinian Authority and its security forces were making it impossible for them to deal with Hamas. “Without working on the basis of a political ground, there is no military or security solution,” he said.

The Arab group resolution “demands the immediate cessation of all acts of violence, provocation and destruction, as well as the return to the positions and arrangements which existed prior to September 2000” when the current conflict began.