The Biden administration has averted a potential diplomatic crisis Israel Settlements at the United Nations that threatened to oversee US efforts by the world body to focus on war with Russia ukraine This week before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Several diplomats familiar with the situation said on Sunday that the US had succeeded in blocking a controversial UN Security Council resolution. Palestinians which condemns Israel for settlement expansion and calls for a halt to future activity.
To avoid a vote and a possible US veto of such a resolution, diplomats said the administration managed to convince both Israel and the Palestinians that they could agree in principle to a six-month moratorium on any unilateral action. Are.
On Israel’s side, this would mean a commitment not to expand the settlements until at least August, according to diplomats.
On the Palestinian side, diplomats said this would mean a commitment by August not to act against Israel at the United Nations and other international bodies such as the World Court, the International Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Council.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the highly sensitive talks.
The temporary agreement means the US will not have to go ahead with a planned veto of the resolution which would have been a political headache for the president Joe Biden As he nears the 2024 presidential election.
Biden is struggling to balance his opposition to Israeli settlements and his support for a two-state proposal for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with moves to improve relations with the Palestinians that have broad support among his progressive supporters.
And, although the administration has already condemned Israel’s latest settlement expansion and called the Palestinian proposal “useless,” top congressional Republicans have warned Biden that the veto would have dire consequences for his legislative agenda.
A veto would also alienate pro-Palestinian UN member states like the United Arab Emirates, which was sponsoring the resolution in the Security Council, as it deals with Russia and Ukraine.
The United States has urged the United Arab Emirates and other Council members sympathetic to the Palestinians to vote in favor of resolutions condemning Russia for invading Ukraine and calling for an end to hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of all Russian forces. Will see
The agreement was reached on Sunday after several days of frantic negotiations by senior Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Sullivan’s deputy Brett McGurk, top diplomats were involved. For the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, and Hadi Amr, Special Envoy for Palestinian Affairs.
The Palestinian push for a resolution came as Israel’s new right-wing government reaffirmed its commitment to building new settlements in the West Bank and expanding its right to land in the Palestinians’ quest for a future state.
Israel captured the West Bank along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War. The United Nations and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements illegal and an obstacle to ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. About 700,000 Israeli residents live in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.
In December 2016, the Security Council demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.” It insisted that halting settlement activities was “necessary to salvage the two-state solution.”
That resolution was adopted after President Barack Obama’s administration abstained from voting, a reversal of the United States’ longstanding practice of shielding its close ally Israel from action at the UN, including vetoing Arab-backed resolutions.
Still, the situation in Ukraine is huge.
On Thursday, the 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion, reiterating the withdrawal of all Russian military forces from Ukraine and an end to hostilities. On Friday’s anniversary, the Security Council will hold a ministerial meeting on the attack and its impact.
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Lee reported from Washington.