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Posted on 10/08/2003 1:48:21 PM PDT by anotherview
Oct. 8, 2003
Gillerman: "Dangerous developments" inside UN Security Council
By MELISSA RADLER
NEW YORK
As Israel lobbies against a United Nations Security Council draft resolution that condemns its Sunday morning missile strike in Syria, new, more "dangerous developments" are taking place inside the council, Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said yesterday.
A Palestinian-backed, Syrian-sponsored draft resolution demanding that Israel halt construction of its security fence may be introduced into the council in the coming days, and an additional resolution urging the parties to implement the road map is in the works, Gillerman said during a conference call with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The road map, currently a US-led initiative of the international quartet, could become a UN plan if the resolution is adopted.
"This is a very dangerous development," said Gillerman, who addressed Jewish leaders from Washington, where he visited the White House. According to an Israeli official, Gillerman was invited by Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder, who hosted a reception with First Lady Laura Bush and dinner with Secretary of State Colin Powell for an organization they run that sends museum artwork to US embassies overseas.
"Those resolutions may in fact change the rules of the game," said Gillerman.
A spokesman for the US mission to the UN, Richard Grenell, said he hadn't seen any formal proposals on the fence or the road map. "I think they know what it takes in term of a balanced resolution on our end," he said. "We'll have to wait and see exactly what the point is."
US Ambassador John Negroponte has indicated he will veto the draft resolution condemning Israel's strike against an alleged Islamic Jihad training camp near Damascus because the resolution fails to condemn terrorism and makes no reference to a suicide attack a day earlier, carried out by Islamic Jihad, that killed 19 Israelis.
In order for council resolutions to be adopted, they need the support of nine of the council's 15 members, although five nations, including the US, hold a veto power. According to Gillerman, delegates from France and Spain are currently urging Syria to include a "vague mention of terrorism" in its draft to garner additional support, and the US may be forced to use its veto in the event of a vote.
Gillerman has praised the US for standing by Israel in the face of frequent international condemnation, but he was critical yesterday of Negroponte's decision to allow an emergency council debate called by Syria on Sunday to proceed. Negroponte, who is the council's president for October, should have demanded that the meeting be postponed until after Yom Kippur, said Gillerman.
The debate also interrupted Negroponte's weekend – he was forced to drive into the city from Vermont, where he was visiting family. "I was very outraged and dismayed at the fact that the Security Council decided to hold this meeting and that the US ambassador succumbed so easily" to Syrian pressure, said Gillerman.
The US has said that without the council president's approval for the meeting, Syria could have demanded a procedural debate in its place. Had a vote been held during that debate, the US would not have been able to exercise its veto.
Israel's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Arye Mekel, said he also protested the meeting to his US counterparts. "I told the Americans ahead of time, don't have it on Yom Kippur, because it will add insult to injury," said Mekel.
Yesterday, the Israeli mission sent a letter expressing its disappointment on the timing of the meeting to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Negroponte in his capacity as council president. A request that the letter be circulated to all UN member states was included.
"We are very upset that the Security Council never met to discuss the death of any of the 850 Israelis that were killed by terror, and did not even consider a meeting after the death of the 19 innocent Israelis on Saturday," said Mekel. "On the other hand, they met urgently on the eve of Yom Kippur, to discuss the attack on Syria in which not even one person was wounded."
Dozens of US citizens have been killed in terrorist attacks over the past three years, and "certainly, there have been discussions about calling for a Security Council meeting when there is a terrorist attack on Israeli soil," said Grenell. Until now, though, no such meeting has been called.
In retrospect, said Gillerman, Syria's insistence that the meeting be held on Yom Kippur "proved that they are not only tyrannical, despotic and the world's foremost harbors of terror but also stupid, because they did allowed us to turn the spotlight on Syria." Gillerman's address, which would ordinarily be ignored in the American media, received live coverage across the nation due to its timing.
The Syrian mission, however, is continuing to attack Israel in various UN forums, including a General Assembly debate on Tuesday on Secretary-General Kofi Annan's annual report on the work of the UN and his report on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. During the debate, Syrian delegate Abdou al-Moula Nakkari condemned the Israeli strike and "recent acts of Israeli aggression and the unprecedented nature of the continued suffering of the Palestinian people."
In his right of reply, Mekel criticized Syria for using the debate to launch a diplomatic assault on Israel and defend terror. States that sponsor terror, then complain when Israel defends itself, he said, "best take a good look in the mirror."
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The debate also interrupted Negroponte's weekend – he was forced to drive into the city from Vermont, where he was visiting family. "I was very outraged and dismayed at the fact that the Security Council decided to hold this meeting and that the US ambassador succumbed so easily" to Syrian pressure, said Gillerman.
The US has said that without the council president's approval for the meeting, Syria could have demanded a procedural debate in its place. Had a vote been held during that debate, the US would not have been able to exercise its veto.
While I know it looks like a difference of opinion on actually holding the meeting on the surface, I would bet there was plenty of behind the scenes thank you's for the action.
Publically it can be used for the domestic (and in some cases international) crowd, and from a utilitarian point of view it met the necessary ends.
I'm not a big fan of rules, but it is fun to see them used expertly...
Granted that it's a Good Thing for the US to be on the record with a veto, having the resolution pass would impact Israel's position, exactly, how?
Yes.
Arguably Negroponte was correct. The defeat of leftist insurgencies has lead to more than a decade of stable democracies in Central America, and today "right-wing death squads" are only to be found in countries, like Columbia, where violent and terroristic left-wing insurgencies continue.
This is true. A stupid pandering move by Negroponte to cater to Syrian demands for an "immediate" UNSC meeting on a Saturday night. What the hell is a U.S. representative doing pandering to SYRIA???
Reminds me of how we changed the original name of our anti-terror war, because our enemies were offended by that name: Infinite Justice. In a world where the U.S. does such a thing, I can no longer be shocked or even surprised by stuff like this. It was no huge deal from a substantive standpoint, of course, but boy what a statement it made on how our mindset has changed.
MM
"The War on Terrorism" - We're fighting a tactic?
"The War on islam" - There, that's right.
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