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The US vetoed yesterday a UN Security Council draft resolution calling for an end to Israeli attacks and "disproportionate use of force" in the Gaza Strip.

 

The resolution, sponsored by Qatar on behalf of Arab nations, received 10 votes, one against from the US with four abstentions, including Britain, Peru, Slovakia and Denmark. France, a permanent member of the council, voted in favor.

 

Addressing the council after the vote, John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN, described Qatar's text as "unbalanced" and was "not only untimely but also outmoded." He said adoption of the resolution would have "exacerbated tensions in the region" and would have undermined the vision of "two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."

 

The draft was reworked repeatedly to address concerns that it was too biased against Israel. Language was added calling for the release of an abducted Israeli soldier and urging the Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel.

 

The latest version calls on Israel to "halt its military operations and its disproportionate use of force that endanger the Palestinian civilian population and to withdraw its forces to their original positions outside the Gaza Strip."

 

It also calls for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the abducted Israel soldier and urges Israel to immediately and unconditionally release all detained Palestinian ministers."

 

The Palestinian observer to the UN Riyad Mansour said he was disappointed that the resolution was not adopted despite the tremendous efforts on the part of the sponsors. He called Qatar's resolution "extremely balanced" with sponsors spending a lot of time and trying to accommodate the positions and wishes of all parties.

 

He also deplored US veto to block the resolution that would have called Israel to end military attack in the region.

 

"The repeated failure of the council to act can only prolong the conflict rather than end this vicious cycle of violence," he said.

 

The US campaigned hard in the last several days for other nations on the 15-member council to either vote against the resolution or abstain. But those efforts failed and it had to cast the veto to keep the draft from being adopted.

 

While calling the draft "unbalanced," Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said he backed the draft's claim that Israel's response was disproportionate.

 

"While Israel has every right to act in self-defense, it should do so in a way which does not escalate the situation and which is proportionate and measured, which conforms to international law and avoids civilian deaths and suffering," he said.

 

The UN vote came as Israeli air strikes hit the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Gaza Thursday, which caused heavy damage and wounded 10 children.

 

The attack also came just hours before Israel bombed Beirut's international airport and killed at least 40 Lebanese, opening a new front in the Middle East crisis.

 

A total of 75 Palestinians have now been killed since Israel stepped up its ground offensive just over a week ago, moving troops into areas evacuated less than 10 months ago as part of an historic pullout from Gaza after 38 years.

 

The US, Israel's staunchest ally, last used its veto in the Security Council in October 2004, to block a similar draft demanding that Israel end all military operations in northern Gaza and withdraw from the area. Eight of the last nine vetoes in the council have been cast by the US, with seven of them related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)