US veto threat forces Arabs to put off vote on resolution
By Our Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, April 11: Under US veto threat the Arab nations put off a vote in the UN Security Council on another resolution on Middle East and settled for a statement calling on Israel to withdraw fully from Palestinian cities and pressing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to rein in “terror attacks.”
The resolution was opposed by the US, which along with Israel opposed the idea of third party presence to oversee withdrawal of Israeli forces.
In its statement on Wednesday, the 15-member Security Council said it “supports the joint statement issued in Madrid” by the so-called Quartet of envoys from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
The Madrid declaration, which set out a blueprint of what was needed to restore calm to the region, called on Israel to immediately withdraw from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, where Arafat has been pinned in his offices by Israeli tanks.
The four envoys, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, said Arafat should do all he could “to stop terror attacks against innocent Israelis.”
Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa said the council’s move was important because the Quartet statement it embraced “has a whole vision and is more comprehensive than anything the Security Council has done.”
Al-Kidwa said Arab states would now put on hold their resolution to see what came out of the Madrid declaration.
The United States, one of the five permanent Council members with veto power, prefers no Council resolutions on the Middle East, believing them to be unhelpful.
But in the past few weeks the United States has softened or rewritten three Arab-drafted resolutions so that it would not have to cast a veto and thereby further inflame tensions in the region.
“We think the important point now is to allow Secretary Powell to pursue his very, very important mission in the Middle East,” US Ambassador John Negroponte said.
Powell, who has had an earful from the Arab countries leaders during his visit to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, has already been rebuffed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who expressed determination to press ahead with the military operation in the occupied territories.
