UN Security Council Puts off Decision on Palestinian PleaThe UN Security Council put off a decision Thursday on considering a third Palestinian plea for UN protection for civilian in the West Bank and Gaza, saying action now could harm diplomatic efforts to end Middle East violence and revive peace talks.James Cunningham, the president of the 15-nation Security Council, made the statement at the end of a closed-door emergency meeting at the request of Arab Group members. "The council members met this morning to discuss the request by the members of the Arab Group for a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East," Cunningham said in a statement read to reporters here. "They expressed their great concern with the continuing levels of violence and desire to do what is possible to promote resumption of dialogue to stabilize the situation." "There was widespread agreement in the council that it wasn't appropriate to take a decision at this time" on fixing a date for a meeting on the Palestinian request, said Cunningham, the acting U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. But he repeated in his national capacity that the United States would oppose any resolution at this time. "I expressed the national view that we don't think a meeting at this time would be helpful," he said, adding that the United States wanted to "focus on the high-level contacts that are on- going." He said that if a council member submitted a draft resolution to the council and asked for it be put to the vote, he would use the U.S. power of veto to defeat it. The United States is one of the five permanent members with veto power on the Security Council. Almost 540 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since the violence exploded in Israel and the Palestinian territory in late September last year. On Wednesday, the Arab Group of states at the United Nations wrote to Cunningham to ask for an immediate council meeting "to discuss the continuous escalation of repressive practices against the Palestinian population by Israel, the occupying power, in addition to its policy of premeditated assassination." Israeli troops killed five Palestinian policemen in the West Bank on Monday in an attack condemned by Palestinian officials as a "cold-blooded execution". The latest Palestinian request came as senior Palestinian officials threatened to intensify the conflict that broke out since September last year. A resolution in December last year failed to get the required nine votes in the Security Council, thereby sparing the United States the use of its veto power. In a second attempt in late March, the Palestinians lined up the necessary votes, leaving Washington to kill the measure. That resolution called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to consult on creating "an appropriate mechanism to protect Palestinian civilians, including through the establishment of a United Nations observer force." |
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