US vetoes UN resolution on Israel settlements

[ishwaq]

UNITED NATIONS: The United States on Friday vetoed an Arab resolution before the UN Security Council condemning continued Israeli settlement building.

US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, said Washington had "regrettably" chosen to oppose the resolution, sponsored by some 130 countries and backed by the Palestinian leadership, after seeking to offer an alternative course which had been rejected.

"This draft resolution risks hardening the positions of both sides," Rice said. "It could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations."

And she stressed Washington's veto -- the first by President Barack Obama's administration at the United Nations -- should not be taken as US support for settlement building.

"We reject in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," she told the Council.

But she said the United Nations was not the correct place to try to resolve the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.

"While we agree with our fellow council members and indeed with the wider world about the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians," she said. (AFP)
http://thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=11369

 

[sngilani]

 

[Raaz]

 

[mehwish_ali]

Double Standards of US

USA vetoes UN resolution declaring "Israeli" settlements in West Bank illegal
By Brad Knickerbocker, February 18, 2011

If Obama opposes Israeli settlement activity, why did US veto UN vote?

A United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements, which the US vetoed Friday, put the US in a difficult position at a time when Arabs are rallying for freedom and democracy.

In its first United Nations veto, the Obama administration on Friday voted against a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "illegal."

As one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US used its power to overrule the other 14 Security Council members, all of whom voted for the resolution.

The UN vote puts the United States in a difficult position particularly at a time when freedom and democracy are being fought for in the streets of Arab nations.

The US has a long history of trying to prevent the United Nations from becoming an instrument to coerce Israel, but I think in normal circumstances the US veto would be less uncomfortable, Stewart Patrick, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, told Bloomberg News. They have a huge priority not to change the subject of the conversation from oppression of Arabs and Muslims by their own autocratic governments.

Still, the vote Friday is in line with stated US policy.

That is, it favors direct talks between the parties without a role for the UN in establishing a lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors especially with Palestinians. Fridays veto was the 10th time in the past 11 years that the US has voted against a UN measure considered critical of Israel. Over a longer period, there have been dozens of such votes on behalf of Israel.

At the same, officials continue to make clear that the Obama administration strongly opposes expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreig...i-settlement-activity-why-did-US-veto-UN-vote


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I like (actually love) the lectures upon Humanity by West.

But what is this?

I equally hate the Double Standards.