The United States administration has defied world opinion in abusing its undemocratic and anachronistic veto power to block the United Nations Security Council resolution which would have condemned all acts of extra-judiciary executions, excessive use of force and wide destruction of property, and would have encouraged the establishment of a monitoring mechanism to help the parties.
The draft resolution demanded the immediate cessation of all acts of violence, provocation and destruction, as well as the return to the positions and arrangement which existed prior to September 2000.
The US veto was exercised in the early hours of Saturday morning and the vote in the 15-member UN Security Council was 12 to one with two abstentions, Britain and Norway. The other two European Union members, France and Ireland, were among the �yes� votes.
A debate has long raged about the role of the Security Council and its
capacity to be a credible or legitimate source of international peace
and international law and the United States veto has again highlighted
the brutal fact that without far-reaching United Nations reforms, the UN
Security Council is a deeply-flawed instrument for promoting peace
and collective security.
The Israeli government is clearly taking advantage of the war of the international coalition against terrorism presently focussed on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to destroy the Middle East peace process and, with it, any prospect of a Palestinian state.
(16/12/2001)