US Blocks UN Draft Pressing Israel To End Attacks
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Original Source: Reuters
Via: Yahoo News
By Irwin Arieff
Thursday, April 13, 2006

United Nations (Reuters)--The United States on Thursday blocked a UN Security Council statement drafted by Arab nations and aimed at putting pressure on Israel to stop military strikes on Palestinian targets.

U. S. Ambassador John Bolton said the draft, even after three days of intense negotiations, "was disproportionately critical of Israel, and unfairly so, and needlessly so."

But Palestinian U.N. Observer Riyad Mansour accused Washington of "shielding and protecting Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people."

"It was obvious that many of their concerns were accomodated but yet they kept coming back and coming back for additional things. It was obvious they did not want the Security Council to have a position," Mansour said.

Qatar, acting on behalf of the Arab group at the United Nations, the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement of 112 nations, immediately requested an open council debate on the Middle East, which was scheduled for Monday afternoon.

"I don't see that that meeting is going to be productive, because I don't think the Security Council is an exercise in group therapy," Bolton said.

But Mansour predicted more than 150 U.N. member-nations would address the meeting, to demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of U.N. members were "on the side of Justice and International law."

The draft statement, after three days of revisions aimed at toning it down, expressed grave concern both about rocket attacks on Israel launched from Gaza and the escalation of Israeli shelling of Gaza, which Israel says was meant to end those attacks.

It urged both sides to comply with International law and to refrain from any steps that could escalate the situation.

The remainder of the article can be read at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060413/ts_nm/mideast_un_dc