TEL AVIV, Sept 24: Israel snubbed yet another UN Security Council resolution on Tuesday, refusing to lift its siege of Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, as Palestinians insisted that the world body push Israel to heed its calls.

As soon as the European-drafted Resolution 1435 condemning the destruction of the veteran leader’s West Bank compound and urging the army to lift the siege was adopted, Israel vowed to pursue the operation it launched on September 19 following back-to-back Palestinian suicide bombings.

“The United Nations can do what it wants, but Israel will continue the operation until its aims are achieved,” a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition he not be named.

“Either Arafat leaves his headquarters or the terrorists holed up there hand themselves over,” the official said.

After Arab countries called for the council session at UN headquarters on Monday, sources in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office voiced their hope the United States would veto the resolution.

But Washington abstained.

US President George W. Bush later explained that “our abstention should have sent a message that we hope that all parties stay on the path to peace.”

Washington has in the past used its veto to kill resolutions critical of Israel, but the Israeli official rejected the notion that the abstention was a rebuke by its chief ally.

It was “predictable” considering US efforts to muster support within the UN Security Council for a strike against Iraq, the official explained.—AFP