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06:13 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 (KUNA) -- Acting upon instructions from the League
of Arab States' Follow-Up Committee on the Arab Peace Initiative, the Arab
group here decided late Friday to have the Security Council adopt "soon" a
resolution dealing with the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territories, including East Jerusalem, an Arab diplomat told KUNA.
He said the group, under the chairmanship of the United Arab Emirates,
mandated the Palestinian delegation to draft a resolution and have it
circulated among the Arab, Islamic and Non-Aligned movement members in the
next few days to garner more support.
He speculated that the Arab group will not engage the Council this month as
long as the US is president. The group will rather wait until Bosnia and
Herzegovina takes over the Council's presidency next month.
The draft resolution, he noted, will be exclusively on the settlements
issue, most probably condemning Israel for not renewing the settlements freeze
and demanding an end to their construction.
President Obama announced last week that he failed to convince Israel to
freeze settlements construction, a condition the Palestinian Authority
insisted on in order to resume the direct peace talks with Israel.
Part of the deal President Obama presented to Israel to encourage it to do
so, was to block any action in the Security Council concerning the Palestinian
issue.
Now that the deal is off, the Arabs are putting the US Administration to
the test.
The Arab follow-up committee members are Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco,
Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Secretary General of
the Arab League. (end).
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KUNA 180913 Dec 10NNNN