U.S. envoy says State Dept. knew of pulled U.N. text By Patrick Worsnip DEC 04,07
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Washington's U.N. envoy denied on Tuesday he had failed to consult the State Department before putting a Middle East resolution to the U.N. Security Council that he later withdrew after Israel objected. The United States pulled the draft, which hailed the results of a November 27 Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last Friday in what the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers called an embarrassing about-face.Saying the United States was not a banana republic, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad dismissed what he said were media reports he had submitted the draft resolution on my own.With all due respect, there is nothing with those reports, he told journalists.I talked to the secretary of state (Condoleezza Rice) a few hours before I came to the council. We were very well coordinated with people in Washington, he said.
I don't know whether the secretary of state had seen the text but I had talked with her and I'm sure she was fully briefed. The same applied to my colleagues, Khalilzad said.We don't just write a text in the mission and come and present it to people. We are an organized government, institutionalized. We are not a banana republic.Israeli officials said at the time that while they had no objections to the U.S. text in itself, they believed a Security Council resolution was not appropriate.Khalilzad said while the draft was welcomed by members of the Security Council, who include Arab Qatar, when it was submitted last Thursday, the Israeli government at the highest level decided this was not going to be useful.There was a concern that some had whether if a draft resolution was introduced, other things would be brought in by interested members of the council that would make it more complicated than a simple welcoming and endorsing of what had happened, he said.Washington had simply wanted to encourage and support the Israelis and Palestinians with its resolution, but Israel had been concerned about the record of the United Nations with regard to the issue of Israel-Palestinian issues, he added.
Israel and its U.S. ally have often charged that there is anti-Israeli bias in the world body, and analysts said the Jewish state wanted to keep U.N. involvement in the Middle East peace process to a minimum.Khalilzad said his mission had consulted the Israelis and Palestinians about the draft but he did not say exactly when. Israeli and Palestinian officials indicated at the time they did not have advance knowledge of it.(Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Israel invites bids for new east Jerusalem settlements by Ron Bousso Tue Dec 4, 11:32 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel said on Tuesday it has invited bids to build more than 300 new housing units in annexed east Jerusalem, the first settlement expansion since the revival of peace talks with the Palestinians. The Palestinians slammed the move as an attempt to undermine the renewed peace drive which was officially launched after a seven-year hiatus at an international peace conference in the United States last week.The Israel Land Administration has published a tender for the construction of 307 housing units in Har Homa, an official in the housing ministry told AFP, referring to a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem.At the Annapolis conference last week, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to implement the 2003 roadmap plan, the first phase of which calls on Israel to freeze all settlement activity and for Palestinians to improve security.The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday deployed dozens of security forces in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem in a bid to curb lawlessness and violence, Palestinian security officials said.Israel does not consider construction in east Jerusalem -- which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day war -- as settlement growth because it annexed the Arab part of the Holy City shortly after the conflict.
The neighbourhood is under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality and does not require any authorisation of the defence ministry, which issues construction permits for settlements in the West Bank, the official said.But the annexation of east Jerusalem has not been recognised by the international community, and Palestinians want to make it the capital of their future state.
Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat lambasted the move, which comes a week before Israeli and Palestinian teams are to hold their first talks on a permanent peace deal which the sides aim to clinch by the end of 2008.This blatant Israeli violation of the roadmap will destroy any trust among all the nations that have participated in the Annapolis conference, Erakat said in a statement.If Israel does not backtrack and cancel this settlement decision it will undermine the results of the Annapolis conference before they have even begun to be implemented, he added.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last month vowed to freeze construction of new West Bank settlements as a gesture of goodwill toward Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas ahead of the Annapolis meeting.
But government spokesman Mark Regev said that construction at Har Homa does not constitute a violation of Israel's roadmap commitments.The neighbourhood, known to Arabs as Jebel Abu Ghneim, lies on the southeastern edge of Jerusalem on the road to Bethlehem, and is included in the boundaries of the so-called Greater Jerusalem.Its construction from the late 1980s on a hill overlooking the town in the occupied West Bank incensed the Palestinian Authority and also provoked criticism in the United States.The head of Israel's Peace Now settlement watchdog Yariv Oppenheimer said the new tender raised questions about Israel's intentions in the peace talks.Har Homa is a controversial settlement whose fate should be discussed within the framework of peace talks. The decision to construct now is a provocation that raises questions about Israel's readiness to negotiate a peace deal, Oppenheimer told AFP.In a report released earlier on Tuesday, Peace Now said that Israel has demolished only three percent of unauthorised construction inside Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank over the past 10 years.
France outlines plan for Palestinian donors summit Tue Dec 4, 12:02PM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - France on Tuesday outlined its plans for a donors' conference next week aimed at raising funds to support the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as it seeks to negotiate a lasting peace with Israel. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged at a meeting in the U.S. city of Annapolis, Maryland, last week to try to forge a treaty by the end of 2008 under a U.S.-backed push for peace in the Middle East.
France has invited 69 countries to the Paris donors' conference, which will be held on December 17 -- including the 44 states that attended the Annapolis Middle East conference, as well as the European Union member states and major U.N. donors.
(The conference's) aim is to mobilize donors and to provide financial and political support for the Palestinian Authority, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.The Annapolis meeting saw the first formal peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in seven years, aiming to create a state in Gaza and the West Bank, together home to 4 million Palestinians.But that hinges on Abbas getting Hamas Islamists to give up the Gaza Strip and disarm. Abbas has done little to explain how he expects to achieve such a feat, either through new elections or militarily.
Olmert has vowed not to carry out any peace deal until Abbas reins in militants, including Palestinian Hamas Islamists who seized control of Gaza in June and have rejected U.S. President George W. Bush's push for peace.Hamas has vowed to undermine Abbas's talks with Olmert by keeping up its fight against Israel.The Paris meeting aimed at bolstering Abbas will be chaired by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Middle East envoy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.The Foreign Ministry said there would be roughly 90 delegations, including international organizations such as the Arab League, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
