The Security Council approved a resolution endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time and calling for an immediate ceasefire in the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The resolution, the first the US has introduced since the latest bloodshed began in September 2000, was approved Tuesday night, winning the support of 14 of the 15 council members.
Syria, which had earlier introduced a Palestinian-backed resolution on behalf of the Arab states, abstained. The Palestinian UN observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, called the US resolution ``important'' and said his government would abide by its provisions.
PHOTO: AP
The US, Israel's most powerful ally, surprised the council with its unexpected support for a Security Council resolution on the Middle East.
Previously, it had thwarted every effort by the Palestinians to get the council to adopt a resolution that would condemn Israeli actions and create some kind of outside monitoring to help cool the latest uprising.
Diplomats said the timing was important: US Vice-President Dick Cheney is in the Middle East; US envoy Anthony Zinni is heading there; the violence appears to be spiraling out of control and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued his toughest statement ever earlier Tuesday, calling on both sides to avert a disaster.
The resolution "demands immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction." It calls on the Israelis and Palestinians to cooperate in implementing steps leading to a resumption of negotiations on a political settlement.
In a statement added after late-night negotiations, it affirms for the first time in a council resolution "a vision of a region where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders."
US President George W. Bush endorsed a Palestinian state at last November's UN General Assembly session and US Secretary of State Colin Powell used almost the exact words in the resolution in a speech in Louisville, Kentucky, on Nov. 19.
Previous Security Council resolutions dealing with Middle East peace have not explicitly referred to a Palestinian state because the issue was too contentious. When it became politically acceptable in recent years, there was a stalemate in the council on Middle East resolutions.
"It's the first time the Security Council spells out the vision of two states," Al-Kidwa said. "It names Israel and Palestine, and that's obviously an important step forward."
Syria's UN Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe said he abstained because the US resolution was "very weak" and didn't deal with the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "the question of the Israeli occupation."
"This resolution treats the killer and the victim on equal footing," he said.
Nonetheless, Syria abstained, rather that voting against the resolution, "to send a message" and not break the unity of the council, Wehbe said.
US Ambassador John Negroponte countered that it was "a strong resolution" capturing a broad consensus on the goals and next steps in the Middle East peace process and speaking out strongly against terrorism.
"Our intent in doing this was to give an impulse to peace efforts and to decry violence and terror," he said after the vote.
Israel's UN Ambassador Yehuda Lancry said he welcomed the "balanced" Security Council resolution on the Middle East, which he called "a rare and remarkable fact."
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said yesterday that the reference to a Palestinian state "represents a defeat for the policy of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon."
"There is a need now for direct international intervention to implement this resolution through ending the Israeli occupation and evacuating all the Israeli settlements" from Palestinian lands, Rabbo said.
Israel would now like Zinni's mission to be successful "and to achieve a ceasefire with the Palestinians which will undoubtedly create a positive atmosphere" to start the steps outlined by CIA director George Tenet and recommendations from former US Senator George Mitchell to return to negotiations.
The Syrian draft resolution, which was never put to a vote, referred to Israel as "the occupying power" and called for it to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the protection of civilians during occupation.
Israel claims the land is disputed, not occupied, and maintains the convention does not apply. The US, Israel's closest council ally, dropped the reference to Israeli occupation and the Geneva convention.
Neither the US nor the Syrian draft mentioned outside observers to help calm the situation, something Israel opposes.
The Security Council early Tuesday listened to Secretary-General Kofi Annan urge Palestinians to halt "morally repugnant" acts of terror and suicide bombings and Israelis to end their "illegal occupation" of Palestinian territory and stop using excessive force.
Calling the current fighting the worst in a decade, Annan welcomed the US decision to send Zinni back to the region and urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to back his efforts to renew the peace process.
"You can still lead your people away from disaster," Annan said, noting that in the last 10 days, over 150 Palestinians and about 50 Israelis have died. He also called on the Security Council "to lend its full authority and influence to the vital cause of peace."
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said he believed it was the first time that Annan had called Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory "illegal."
Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the UN and spokesman for the Sharon government, said said Annan's characterization of Israel's presence in the Palestinian territories as "illegal" is "inconsistent with Israel's stated willingness to resolve its territorial differences with the Palestinians under UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338," which call for a withdrawal from territory that Israel captured in the wars of 1967 and 1973.
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