CAIRO: The Arab League said yesterday it hoped the United States would not veto a draft UN Security Council resolution laying out the terms of a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Jordan presented the draft on Wednesday on behalf of the Palestinians, who have sought to avoid a clash with Washington by saying they are open to negotiations on the text.
It would set a 12-month deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final settlement and the end of 2017 as the time frame for completing an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
“We hope that the United States will not use its veto,” said the Arab League’s deputy secretary general for Palestinian affairs, Mohammed Sobeih.
“The use of the American veto will harm the Palestinian cause and will be used by extremists as an instrument to pursue settlement (of Jews in the occupied territories) and ruin the peace process,” he told journalists.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said Israel would never accept the “unilateral” recognition of a Palestinian state.
And the United States, holding veto power as one of the council’s five permanent members, has repeatedly vetoed resolutions seen as undermining its close ally Israel.
The US administration opposes moves to bind negotiators’ hands through a UN resolution — particularly any attempt to set a deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank.
But US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the resolution would not present a problem if it can avoid exacerbating tensions in the region.
The Palestinians had said they wanted a quick vote but backed away, apparently under pressure from Arab countries including Jordan, which is seeking a draft that will be acceptable to the United States.
“There is not the basis for consensus on the text as drafted and that is why we need to do some work,” said a Security Council diplomat.
“The issue now is how do we get something that really does command consensus. The objective that we have is to achieve consensus, which means we want to have a text that everybody can agree,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
France, working with Britain and Germany, was pressing on with a separate text on reviving the peace process.
“We are continuing our work on a consensus text. We are working on the European text and we will see if we can make progress,” said a European diplomat.
Adoption of a Security Council resolution on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would mark a key step after the United States failed in a high-profile bid to restart the press in April.
With Israel in an election campaign for March polls, there is concern that the resolution could play into the hands of hardliners and that delaying UN action would be wise.
“Palestinians now feeling they want to rush ahead, the rest of us quite frankly not sure that is a good idea this side of the Israeli elections that we’re now going to have in March,” said a Western diplomat.
Diplomatic sources suggested the Palestinians may be willing to hold off on a Security Council vote if they get assurances that Israel will freeze settlement construction until a way forward can be decided.
AFP
