Anti-Israel motion tests UNSC resolve

Iran says a UN Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution condemning Israel’s settlement activities provides a good way to measure the resolve of the council, in particular the permanent five.

“The draft as a whole, I think, would be a good indication if the Security Council in particular the permanent members of the Security Council are serious to take a positive step forward to stop the [Israeli] settlement [construction] at least, and then beyond that do more things … to assist Palestinians [whose] rights have been deprived in the past few decades,” Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaei told a Press TV correspondent.

During the UNSC’s Wednesday meeting, representatives of dozens of countries from the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of the Islamic Conference submitted a draft resolution to the UNSC to pressure Israel to freeze all its settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian lands.

The resolution sponsored by more than 120 countries reiterates demands that Israel halt all its settlement building in the Palestinian territories. It points out that settlements built in occupied territory since 1967 are “illegal.”

The resolution was not put into vote on Wednesday. It is still unclear when a vote on the matter may be set.

Some analysts believe that it is unlikely for the 15-nation panel to take any action on the draft resolution in the near future as all resolutions condemning Israel are vetoed by its closest ally and traditional guardian, the United States.

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Rosemary DiCarlo said that Washington was opposed to taking the issue to the UNSC.

“As we have consistently said, permanent status issues can be resolved only through negotiations between the parties and not by recourse to the Security Council,” she said.

“We therefore consistently oppose attempts to take these issues to this council and will continue to do so as such action moves us no closer to the goal of a negotiated final settlement.”

US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, however, refused to say whether Washington would veto the resolution.

“I’m not going to speculate on what happens from this point forward,” Crowley said.

The United Nations has repeatedly declared Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian land as illegal.