The United States on Thursday presented the UN Security Council with a draft resolution backing the US-sponsored Annapolis conference decision to relaunch the Mideast peace process. Distributed to reporters, the draft says the Council “endorses the programme of action for negotiations and implementation of outstanding obligations, agreed upon by the Israeli and Palestinian leadership at Annapolis, Maryland on November 27, 2007.”Under US President George W Bush’s aegis, Israeli and Palestinian leaders met at the Maryland state capital to revive the stagnant Middle East peace process and set the goal of a peace agreement and a new Palestinian state by the end of 2008.
After consultations on the draft text, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the 15-member council had “a good discussion ... there was enormous support.”
“Everyone recognises that we collectively and individually have to do what we can to be supportive, to sustain the momentum and to help the parties as they make the difficult decisions that they have to make” to achieve peace, he added. French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the international community “must support the process and the dynamics of Annapolis.”
He said France “deems important that the Security Council, as the US initiative aims at, supports this dynamic triggered in Annapolis, which must bring about, before the end of 2008, a viable and democratic Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.”