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CAIRO, Dec 22: The Arab League denounced the United States on Sunday for blocking a Syrian-drafted UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for the deaths of UN workers in the occupied territories.
The League “voiced its lively condemnation of the United States’ for its recourse to a veto against the Syrian project,” Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters after permanent representatives to the 22-member organisation met here.
The League blamed Washington for “encouraging Israel to intensify its aggression and military attacks, which as a result encourages the pursuit of violence in the occupied territories,” he said.
The resolution put to the vote in the council Friday expressed “grave concern at the killing by the Israeli occupying forces of several United Nations employees,” including a Briton killed in a West Bank refugee camp on November 22.
Israel has come under heavy criticism for the deaths of at least five UN workers struck down in the midst of military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A full 12 of the 15 members of the Security Council — including the other four veto-wielding permanent members, Britain, China, France and Russia — all supported the resolution.
Israel saluted its closest ally for scrapping the resolution.
SAUDI PRESS RAPS: A US veto which blocked a draft resolution in the Security Council criticising Israel for killing UN workers is a licence to kill civilians in the Palestinian territories, the Saudi press charged Sunday.
The veto “specifically means that the killing of civilians is allowed in Israel and that (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon has the right to continue slaughtering Palestinians and relief workers,” Okaz daily said.
“It also means that the UN had a conscience only before the establishment of Israel (in 1948) which has now disappeared,” the paper added.
Al-Watan newspaper said Washington had so far used the veto 76 times in favour of Israel, an indication of the total US bias for the Jewish state.
“We are afraid that the US veto ... could negatively affect international employees and volunteers during catastrophes,” said the paper, adding that humanitarian relief programmes could be hampered.
Al-Riyadh newspaper criticised the United Nations and Secretary General Kofi Annan for failing to stand up to US hegemony.—AFP
