UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5: The UN Security Council met in emergency session on Sunday at the request of Syria, which asked the 15-member body to condemn Israel for attacking an alleged Palestinian training camp near Damascus.

Syria’s UN ambassador Fayssal Mekdad, who holds a seat on the Security Council, said council members would make public statements and afterward consider a resolution drafted by Syria that would “condemn strongly this brutal and unjustifiable attack” and urge Israel to desist from further attacks.

Mr Mekdad said Arab governments at the United Nations had joined Syria in sponsoring the draft resolution and in calling for the Sunday council meeting.

“Certainly, we all feel that this action taken by the Israelis is certainly doing damage to the peace process in the Middle East,” Chinese Ambassador Wang Guang Ya told reporters as the meeting got under way.

But Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman told reporters he was appalled the council was meeting after the Israeli bombing raid but not after Saturday’s suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel, which killed 19 people.

Mr Gillerman noted that the holiest Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur began at sundown on Sunday and that the Israeli delegation would leave promptly at 5:30pm (2130 GMT).

“I don’t see such a meeting on Christmas day,” he said.

The White House on Sunday urged both countries to do nothing that would further heighten tensions or lead to hostilities in the Middle East.—Reuters