UN Safety Council denounces Israel in assertion after US showdown averted By Reuters

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The U.N. Safety Council issued a proper assertion on Monday denouncing Israel’s plan to increase settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, the primary motion the US has allowed the physique to take towards its ally Israel in six years.

Washington’s help for the presidential assertion – motion the 15-member council has to agree by consensus – got here after the United Arab Emirates stated it will not put a stronger draft decision on the problem to a vote, a transfer that might have prompted a U.S. veto.

“The Safety Council reiterates that persevering with Israeli settlement actions are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State resolution based mostly on the 1967 traces,” the council stated within the assertion. “The Safety Council expresses deep concern and dismay with Israel’s announcement on February 12.”

In distinction the draft decision, seen by Reuters, would have demanded Israel “instantly and fully stop all settlement actions within the occupied Palestinian territory.” Resolutions want 9 votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, France or Britain to be adopted.

Israel’s religious-nationalist coalition authorities on Feb. 12 granted retroactive authorization to 9 settler outposts that had been erected with out authorities approval, angering the Palestinians, who need the West Financial institution for a future state.

“All of the elements are there for us to achieve a degree of no return,” Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour instructed the council. “Each motion we take now issues. Each phrase we utter issues. Each resolution we delay issues.”

‘ONE-SIDED’

The UAE instructed Safety Council counterparts on Sunday that it will not put the draft decision to a vote on Monday “given the optimistic talks between the events.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace then stated on Monday that Israel won’t authorize new settlements within the occupied West Financial institution within the coming months.

Netanyahu’s workplace described the Safety Council assertion on Monday as “one-sided” and criticized the US for supporting it, including: “The assertion shouldn’t have been made and the US shouldn’t have joined it.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield instructed the Safety Council that the US opposes Israel’s Feb. 12 settlement plans.

“These unilateral measures exacerbate tensions. They hurt belief between the events. They undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state resolution. The USA doesn’t help these actions full cease,” she stated.

Thomas-Greenfield described the presidential assertion as “actual diplomacy at work” that reveals how critically the council “takes these threats to peace,” including: “The USA joined different members of this council in asking each Israelis and Palestinians to take the pressing and crucial steps to revive calm and enhance the standard of life for his or her folks.”

In December 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration abstained on a Safety Council vote, permitting the physique to undertake a decision that demanded Israel cease constructing settlements.

Most world powers view as unlawful the settlements Israel has constructed on land it captured in a 1967 battle with Arab powers. Israel disputes that and cites biblical, historic and political hyperlinks to the West Financial institution, in addition to safety pursuits.