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Your support makes all the difference.The UN Security Council approved a resolution endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time and called for an immediate cease-fire in the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The resolution, the first the United States has introduced since the latest bloodshed began in September 2000, was approved last night, winning support from 14 of the 15 council members. Syria abstained.
Speaking on behalf of Arab nations, Syria's UN Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe said the resolution was "very weak" and didn't deal with the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "the question of the Israeli occupation."
Syria abstained, rather that voting against the resolution, "to send a message" and not break the unity of the council, Wehbe said.
US Ambassador John Negroponte countered that it was "a strong resolution on the Middle East," capturing a broad consensus on the goals and next steps in the peace process and speaking out strongly against terrorism.
"Our intent in doing this was to give an impulse to peace efforts and to decry violence and terror," he said after the vote.
Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, called the resolution important and welcomed the council's first reference to two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side. Even though the Palestinians didn't support everything in the US text, he indicated if he had a vote he would have approved it.
US diplomats said the idea of separate Palestinian and Israeli states was voiced by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a speech last November, and has been echoed by President George Bush.
For once, Israel's UN Ambassador Yehuda Lancry said he could welcome a "balanced" Security Council resolution on the Middle East, which he called "a rare and remarkable" occurrence.
Earlier, Syria had introduced a Palestinian-backed draft resolution that referred to Israel as "the occupying power" and called for it to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the protection of civilians during occupation. Israel claims the land is disputed, not occupied, and maintains the convention does not apply.
Both the US and Syrian drafts called for an immediate cessation of violence and a resumption of negotiations. Neither mentioned outside observers to help calm the situation, which Israel opposes.
The United States, Israel's closest council ally, dropped the reference to Israeli occupation and the Geneva convention in its draft. It added a demand for the immediate cessation of "all acts of terror," a welcome for Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's peace initiative, and encouragement for diplomatic efforts by US Anthony Zinni and others.
In last minute negotiations, it added a sentence "affirming a vision of a region where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side within secure and recognized borders."
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