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Arabs endorse UN resolution to end Israel's occupation

30 December 2014 00:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Arab ambassadors on Monday endorsed Palestinian amendments to a U.N. resolution that would call for an end to Israel's occupation within three years, a proposal strongly opposed by Israel and the United States and virtually certain to be defeated, APA reports quoting Associated Press.

Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Dina Kawar, the Arab representative on the Security Council, told reporters after the closed-door meeting of the 22 Arab envoys that the revised text would be submitted to the council later Monday.

She said the Palestinian and Jordanian leaders "will be contacting each other today to find the best time to cast the vote in the Security Council on the amended version."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said before the Arab group met that the revised resolution would be submitted Monday and voted on Tuesday.

The Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters after the meeting that a vote "could happen tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow." But Kawar, when asked whether the vote could be put off until after Jan. 1, when five new members join the Security Council, said: "Everything is possible."

Even if the resolution musters the minimum nine required "yes" votes, the United States, Israel's closest ally, is certain to veto it if necessary. The U.S. insists there must be a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters in Washington on Monday that the new draft resolution "is not something that we would support, and other countries share the same concerns that we have."

"We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reaching a peace agreement and for Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank, and those are more likely to curtail useful negotiations than to bring them to a successful conclusion," Rathke said. "Further, we think that the resolution fails to account for Israel's legitimate security needs."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Monday that if the Security Council doesn't reject the resolution, "we will."

The Palestinian Authority is "seeking to impose on us a diktat that would undermine Israel's security, put its future in peril," he said. "Israel will oppose conditions that endanger our future."

Netanyahu said Israel expects at least "the responsible members" of the international community to vigorously oppose the resolution "because what we need always is direct negotiations and not imposed conditions."

Mansour, the Palestinian envoy, has said the Palestinians can't return "to the same cycle of failed negotiations," which he says Israel uses to entrench its occupation. He has urged international support for the resolution setting a deadline for a complete Israeli withdrawal.

The Palestinians circulated a draft resolution on Oct. 1 asking the council to set a deadline of November 2016 for an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. France had been working for a U.N. resolution aimed at restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, setting a two-year deadline for success.

Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said Sunday that the amended resolution calls for ending the Israeli occupation within three years and establishing a Palestinian independent state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He said it also calls for solving the problem of Palestinian refugees in accordance with U.N. resolutions and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.