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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| US vetoes UN resolution on Israeli settlements |
| 2011-02-19 |
| [Arab News] The United States vetoed a UN resolution Friday that would have condemned Israeli settlements as "illegal" and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building. The 14 other Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution. The B.O. regime's veto is certain to anger Arab countries and Paleostinian supporters around the world. An abstention would have angered the Israelis, the closest US ally in the region, as well as Democratic and Republican supporters of Israel in the US Congress. The US opposes new settlements but says taking the issue to the UN will only complicate efforts to resume stalled negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinians on a two-state solution. The Paleostinians have said repeatedly that they will not resume peace talks until Israel halts settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Paleostinians want as their capital. Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks collapsed just weeks after they restarted in September because Israel ended a 10-month moratorium on settlement construction. The UN vote came a day after Obama and Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas spoke by telephone, according to Paleostinian Authority front man Nabil Aburdeneh. They discussed the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and the resolution on settlements, he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |