US â€œconcernedâ€ over a UN draft demanding Israel to halt settlement activities

Sunday June 29, 2008 09:19

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

On Friday, the United States and several member countries of the Security Council, expressed what they described as “concern” over a draft demanding Israel to immediately halt its settlement planning, expansion and construction in the West Bank.

The draft was discussed during unofficial talks among several countries that are members of the security council as representative of these countries presented their monthly report on the situation in the Middle East.

The draft was presented by Libya through the Arab League and included a demand to condemn the Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The draft was supposed to be discussed on Thursday but the Russian envoy demanded to delay the discussions because he wanted to watch a soccer match between Russia and Spain. The draft might be discussed in the middle of the coming week.

The main article of the draft demands Israel to immediately halt all of its settlements activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem.

Israeli sources reported that the United States will most likely demand fundamental changes to the draft and added that several months ago Arab members of the security council refused an American demand to change some phrases on a statement condemning the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, ultimately the draft was completely dropped.

Last week, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, demanded the that the Security Council should not intervene in the issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Rice claimed that the security council should not be busy in discussing the issue of settlement while Israel and the Palestinians are holding talks.

Israel believes that after the latest statements of Rice, the US will most likely used its veto power against the draft.