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http://www.dawn.com/2002/09/24/int2.htm Dawn (Pakistan) September 24, 2002 US threatens to veto UN resolution: Arafat rejects Israeli terms -...Kidwa said the Palestinian leadership condemned suicide attacks. Moreover, he said, the first such bombing took place in 1994, after 27 years of Israeli occupation and the transfer of 350,000 settlers to Palestinian territory. "The occupation and its ugly practices have not come as a result of suicide bombings and did not continue because of them," he said: "actually it created them." UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (AFP): The United States threatened on Monday to veto a draft resolution before the United Nations Security Council calling on Israel to lift its siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters. "We will not support the adoption of a one-sided text that fails to recognize that this conflict has two sides," the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, told a public session of the council. The permanent representative of Palestine to the UN, Nasser Al-Kidwa, had earlier asked the council to adopt "a clear resolution" demanding that Israel withdraw immediately from Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank. But Negroponte said the text was unacceptable because it did not also condemn suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan began the council meeting with an appeal to Israelis and Palestinians to abandon the "bankrupt policy" of trying to force each other to capitulate. "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not going to be resolved by military might alone, or by violent means of any kind," Annan said. "A policy based on forcing the other side to capitulate is a bankrupt policy. It is not working, and it will never work. It only encourages desperation. It weakens moderates and strengthens extremists," he added. All 15 council members, 19 other countries and Kidwa were due to speak in the meeting, called at the request of the Arab group of nations. "Additional Security Council resolutions, particularly one-sided ones, are more than unhelpful; they are counter-productive," Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, told the council. Resolutions which failed to condemn suicide bombings in the strongest terms were an incentive to terrorists, he went on. "If international support can be garnered for one-sided resolutions, why should compromise be sought at the negotiating table?" Lancry asked. But Kidwa said the Palestinian leadership condemned suicide attacks. Moreover, he said, the first such bombing took place in 1994, after 27 years of Israeli occupation and the transfer of 350,000 settlers to Palestinian territory. "The occupation and its ugly practices have not come as a result of suicide bombings and did not continue because of them," he said: "actually it created them." ARAFAT: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Monday rejected Israel's terms for lifting its siege of his battered offices here as Washington and the world community increased pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Arafat's rejection of Israel's demand for a list of names of 250 people holed up with him also came as the UN Security Council debated the crisis in New York and Greece announced a delegation from the four main diplomatic players was heading to the region in a bid to calm the crisis. "We and President Arafat reject all Israeli conditions," chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said after briefing the Palestinian leader about his earlier meeting with army officers at Israel's Beit El base just outside this West Bank town. "The Israeli side asked us to take the names of the people in (the compound). We reject this (demand) from the Israeli side," Erakat said.-AFP __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
