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US withdraws Mideast resolution at UN

US decides to pull resolution endorsing Annapolis agreement, apparently in order to allow Israelis, Palestinians to review text. Diplomats says Israel not interested in resolution

In an about face, the United States on Friday withdrew a UN resolution endorsing this week's agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008, apparently after Israel objected.

 

Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff informed the Security Council that the United States was pulling the resolution from consideration less than 24 hours after Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad introduced it and welcomed the "very positive" response from council members.

 

Khalilzad had said he needed to consult with the Israelis and Palestinians on the text of the resolution to ensure that it was what they wanted following the decisions by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md.

 

Wolff said the US had held intensive consultations in the past few days "and the upshot was that there were some unease with the idea" of a resolution.

 

Well-informed diplomats said Israel, a close US ally, did not want a resolution, which would bring the Security Council into the fledgling negotiations with the Palestinians. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Khalilzad introduced the draft resolution without getting broad support from the Israelis, Palestinians and the Bush administration.

 

"It's not the proper venue," Israel's deputy ambassador Daniel Carmon said after Friday's council meeting.

"We feel that the appreciation of Annapolis has other means of being expressed than in a resolution.

"We were not the only ones to object," Carmon said.

 

He added that the Americans had told the Israelis that the Palestinians also objected.

 

"The focus, we all realized again, should be placed and remain on Annapolis and the understanding that was reached there," Wolff said. "It's a momentous decision ... and rather than dilute from that and in respect to both parties in terms of what they thought would be most helpful, we reached a conclusion that it would be best to withdraw it," Wolff said.

 

'Resolution unnecessary'

Normally, the United States would have consulted Israel, a close ally, in advance of introducing a Security Council resolution, as well as the Palestinians, to gauge their reaction.

 

But on Thursday, Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said he knew "very little" about the proposed resolution, adding "we will be discussing it, and no doubt in very good spirit."

 

The State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had decided such a resolution was unnecessary.

 

"We have looked at this and, at the end of the day, the secretary believes that the positive results of Annapolis speak for themselves and there is really no reason to gild the lily," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "I am not sure that we saw the need to add anything else to the conversation.

Sometimes, the results and the event speak for themselves."

 

Two US officials, who on condition of anonymity described Rice's decision to withdraw the draft document, said there were several concerns about the resolution, including the failure to consult the Israelis and Palestinians on the language and the possibility that some on the Security Council might try to add anti-Israeli language to it.

 

Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser of Qatar, the only Arab member on the Security Council, said Thursday "we are happy with the language as it is" in the US draft resolution.

 

"I am happy that the council is dealing with this issue," he said. "For me, this is the main thing."

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.30.07, 23:46
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