The US informed Arab governments this week that it will support the UN Security Council’s statement that would criticize Israel on its illegal settlements but would stop short of a resolution.
The document states that the 15-nation body “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity”.
The move is seen as a US attempt to avoid the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.
The draft resolution, sponsored by 120 countries, not only condemns Israel’s settlement activities but demands that it “immediately and completely” cease all such actions “in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.
The Security Council president’s statement proposed by the Obama administration would express “strong opposition to any unilateral actions by any party, which cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community” and slams continued Israeli settlement activity, “as a serious obstacle to the peace process,” according to reports on Wednesday in Foreign Policy and on Alhurra, the US government-run Arabic broadcaster.
It also condemns “all forms of violence, including rocket fire from Gaza, and stresses the need for calm and security for both peoples”.
Still, the US offer signals a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with Israel and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to its key ally to stop its construction of new settlements.
Susan E. Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, outlined the new US offer during a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East.
In exchange for shelving the Palestinian resolution, the US would support the council statement; consider backing a UN Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel’s settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.
For weeks, the Obama administration has refused to negotiate with the Palestinians on a resolution condemning the settlements as illegal.
The US has, however, been isolated in the 15-nation council.
Virtually all 14 other member states are prepared to support the Palestinian resolution, according to council diplomats. A UN Security Council resolution generally carries greater political and legal force than a statement from the council’s president.
The Palestinian delegation, along with Lebanon, the Security Council’s only Arab member state, asked the council’s president late Wednesday to schedule a meeting for Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today to reject the US offer is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from Washington.
Some observers believe that the Palestinians may plan to press for a vote on its resolution on Friday.
The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospect that the Obama Administration will cast its first ever veto in the UN Security Council.
The US concession comes as the Middle East faces a massive wave of popular demonstrations that have brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are posing a challenge to governments in countries such as Algeria and Iran.
