The Hindu : Overwhelming support for Arafat at U.N.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 21, 2003

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Overwhelming support for Arafat at U.N.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON SEPT. 20. The United Nations General Assembly has demanded that Israel stop seeking to expel the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, or threaten his safety.

In an overwhelming fashion, the Assembly on Friday passed a Resolution which saw only four countries — Israel, the United States, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands — voting against it.

The Resolution had the backing of 133 member-states and 15 abstained. All members of the European Union voted for it after the sponsors agreed to make last-minute changes that condemned "all acts of terrorism" and reminded the Palestinian Authority that it was obligated to take "all necessary measures to end violence and terror".

The Resolution condemned Israel's "extrajudicial killings and their recent escalation" and argued that these were not only violations of international law but also an impediment to the peace process.

The Palestinian Authority's representative at the world body called the Israeli threats against Mr. Arafat "illegal and insane". The Israeli envoy called the Resolution "totally useless".

The United States basically carried over its argument from its earlier stance and veto at the Security Council this week by telling the General Assembly that the opposition to the Resolution was on account of its "imbalance and omission" of the explicit condemnation of terror outfits such as the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

On Tuesday, the U.S. vetoed a Resolution in the Security Council leaving the Arab community, the Non-Aligned and others to move the General Assembly.

General Assembly Resolutions are quite unlike the ones that come out of the Security Council for they do not have legal sanction. But there is symbolic and political weight in the sense that they are reflective of the views of a cross section of the international community. In the immediate context, the fact that the European Union stood behind the Palestinians has been taken special note of.

AFP reports:

The U.S. Ambassador, John Negroponte, said the world body should be focussed on the internationally-backed ``roadmap'' for peace.

``It is particularly disheartening that this pattern of one-sided recriminations at the U.N. has begun again,'' Mr. Negroponte said. ``I regret that the U.N. will not send a positive and unified message to support the peace process at the start of this General Assembly.''

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