U.S.: Palestinian UN bid fails to account for Israel’s security needs

State Department says draft resolution to end the occupation and create a Palestinian state ‘not constructive’ and ‘sets arbitrary deadlines.’

HAARETZ

The U.S. State Department sharply criticized on Monday the Palestinian plan to submit a draft resolution at the UN Security Council, calling for an end to the occupation and the creation of a state by 2017.

The move “is not constructive, sets arbitrary deadlines and fails to account for Israel’s security needs,” the State Department said.

Earlier Monday, Palestinian officials said the draft resolution they intend to submit is not new, but rather a revision of the resolution submitted to the council by Jordan earlier this month.

The revised resolution sharpens the Palestinian stance on Jerusalem, future borders and Palestinian refugees.

At the same time, the officials said, if the resolution goes to a vote, it will take place Wednesday – if at all – depending on whether the Palestinians can get majority support at the council.

Arab UN delegations discussed the Palestinian bid on Monday. Jordanian UN Ambassador Dina Kawar told reporters Arab delegations would do what the Palestinians wanted, but indicated Jordan would prefer not to rush things.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone that he would press ahead with the initiative despite Israeli and U.S. opposition, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported. The Americans, meanwhile, prefer to delay the vote until after Israeli elections in March.

“The draft resolution calls for the resumption of negotiations to solve all final status issues by no later than 12 months after the adoption of the resolution and ensures the end of the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will come no later than the end of 2017,” the Palestine Liberation Organization said. “It calls for two sovereign, democratic and secure states, Palestine and Israel.”

A Palestinian draft, submitted to the Security Council by Jordan on December 17, had called for Jerusalem to be the shared capital of Israel and a Palestinian state.

The final proposal reverts to a harder line, saying only that East Jerusalem will be the capital of Palestine, the officials said. It also calls for an end to Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel has said a Security Council vote, which follows the collapse last April of U.S.-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood, would only deepen the decades-old conflict. It supports negotiations but rejects third-party timelines.

Referring to the Palestinian UN bid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday, “We will continue to rebuff vigorously attempts to force terms that would jeopardize our security.”

Nine Security Council votes are needed to adopt a resolution, which would then force the United States, Israel’s closest ally, to decide whether to use its veto.