December 17, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 1, 1422

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CAIRO, Dec 16: Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa voiced surprise and concern at the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution on the Middle East crisis, the MENA news agency reported on Sunday.

“(Mussa) expressed his strong astonishment and concern that the US used its right of veto during the vote on the draft resolution presented by Egypt and Tunisia to the Security Council,” it said.

“The resolution, to which no one objected but the United States, was characterized by balance and objectivity, as it called for immediately stopping all acts of violence and destruction,” Mussa was quoted as saying.

Exercising its veto power for only the second time in more than four years, the United States on Saturday torpedoed a resolution co-sponsored by Tunisia and Egypt that condemned “all acts of terror, in particular those targeting civilians.”

The resolution also encouraged the establishment of a “monitoring mechanism” to “help create a better situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.” Israel has said it opposes such a mechanism.

And Mohamed Sobeih, Palestinian representative to the Arab League, said the US veto had turned the Security Council into a “puppet.”

“The United States of America turned the Security Council ... into a puppet which serves the interests of America, and not the creation of a balanced world order,” Sobeih was quoted by MENA as saying.

“The Palestinian people were astonished and surprised by the use of the veto of the resolution calling for international observers” in the Palestinian territories, Sobeih said.

The veto has been strongly condemned by Arab states and media.

Sobeih told MENA that the Palestinians would present a memorandum on recent “unprecedented Israeli practices” to Arab foreign ministers who are expected to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Thursday.—APP