UN Security Council backs draft resolution opposing Israel settlements – National | 24CA News

The U.N. Security Council unanimously authorised a watered-down assertion strongly opposing Israel’s continued development and enlargement of settlements Monday. The vote got here after high-stakes negotiations by the Biden administration succeeded in derailing a legally binding decision that will have demanded a halt to Israeli settlement exercise.

The Palestinian-backed draft decision was the topic of frantic talks by senior Biden administration officers together with Secretary of States Antony Blinken with Palestinian, Israeli and United Arab Emirates leaders. Those discussions culminated in a deal Sunday to forego it in favor of a weaker presidential assertion that’s not legally binding, in response to a number of diplomats conversant in the scenario.

The deal averted a possible diplomatic disaster, with the U.S. virtually definitely vetoing the decision, which might have angered Palestinian supporters at a time when the U.S. and its Western allies try to realize worldwide help towards Russia for its battle with Ukraine. The battle marked its one-year anniversary of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion this week.

To keep away from a vote on the draft decision, the diplomats stated the U.S. managed to persuade each Israel and the Palestinians to agree in precept to a six-month freeze in any unilateral motion they may take.

On the Israeli aspect, that will imply a dedication to not increasing settlements till at the least August, in response to the diplomats. On Monday, the workplace of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Israel wouldn’t greenlight any new wildcat settlements within the West Bank past 9 outposts that it authorised retroactively earlier this month.

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On the Palestinian aspect, the diplomats stated it might imply a dedication till August to not pursue motion towards Israel on the U.N. and different worldwide our bodies such because the World Court, the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The Palestinian push for a decision got here as Israel’s new right-wing authorities has reaffirmed its dedication to assemble new settlements within the West Bank and increase its authority on land the Palestinians search for a future state.

Israel captured the West Bank, together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, within the 1967 Mideast battle. The United Nations and many of the worldwide neighborhood take into account Israeli settlements unlawful and an impediment to ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian battle. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers reside within the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

The presidential assertion doesn’t condemn Israeli settlement exercise or demand a halt. It does condemn “all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terrorism.”

On settlements, the Security Council “strongly opposes all unilateral measures that impede peace including ? Israeli construction and expansion of settlements, confiscation of Palestinians’ land, and the `legalization’ of settlement outposts, demolition of Palestinians’ homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians.”

The council additionally expressed “deep concern and dismay with Israel’s announcement on Feb. 12, 2023, announcing further construction and expansion of settlements and the `legalization’ of settlement outposts.”

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Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, instructed reporters: “The fact that we have a united front ? is a step in the right direction.”

UAE Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, the council’s Arab consultant who sponsored the decision, counseled the U.S. position and stated the assertion is “the first output from the Security Council in six years on the situation in Palestine.”

“I think it has a strong unified signal from the council that they want to see de-escalation, dialogue and focus on political parameters to (end) a longstanding conflict,” she stated.

In December 2016, the Security Council demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” It pressured that halting settlement actions “is essential for salvaging the two-state solution.”

That decision was adopted after President Barack Obama’s administration abstained within the vote, a reversal of the United States’ longstanding apply of defending its shut ally Israel from motion on the United Nations, together with by vetoing Arab-supported resolutions.

Associated Press author Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

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