BRAMA, December 18, 2000, 7:00pm EST

Security Council fails to adopt draft on UN force in occupied Palestinian territories
United Nations Press Release

18 December – A draft resolution proposing to deploy a United Nations observer force in the occupied Palestinian territories has failed in the Security Council because the measure did not receive the requisite number of affirmative votes.

The draft, which was acted on during a late evening meeting of the Council on Monday, received eight votes in favour - one short of the required majority. Bangladesh, China, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mali, Namibia, Tunisia and Ukraine cast their votes for the measure. Seven countries of the 15-member Council -- Argentina, Canada, France, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States -- abstained in the vote.

The proposal, submitted by the non-aligned countries, called for a UN force comprised of military and police observers which would be dispatched throughout the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 with the aim of "contributing to the implementation of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreements, the cessation of violence and enhancing the safety and security of Palestinian civilians."

During a debate on the issue, there was broad agreement on the need to address the current violence in the Middle East, but Council members differed sharply on the value of adopting the draft at the present juncture. Speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement and Ukraine, Ambassador Martin Andjaba of Namibia said the proposed observer force was aimed to protect civilians and would have a stabilizing effect on the region.

While deploring the ongoing violence, a number of speakers, however, said that while an observer force may, at some stage, be useful, it was not timely in view of the negotiations currently being resumed. In explaining their decision to abstain, some Council members expressed concern that the adoption of the draft could hinder ongoing peace efforts, while others pointed to the need to have international presence only under conditions on which the two parties could agree.

Israel's Ambassador Yehuda Lancry told the Council that his Government was not opposed to some form of international presence, provided that it was established within the context of a comprehensive bilateral agreement. He warned, however, that the dispatch of a UN force had the potential to escalate the violence and further destabilize the region. What was needed from the Council, Ambassador Lancry said, was not intervention, but support for the parties and the efforts to achieve peace, scheduled to get under way this week in Washington.

For his part, the Permanent Observer for Palestine, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said that in spite of horrific human losses among the Palestinian people, the Security Council had shown itself incapable of taking, or not quite ready to take, even a minimum measure. The resumption of talks in Washington should not preclude what was taking place in the Council, he stressed, adding that he could not determine the consequences of the Council's failure to fulfil its duties, nor could he foretell the price that would be paid by Palestinian citizens for that failure.

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