07/10/2004
 

Palestine Media Center – PMC

President Yaser Arafat and the PLO leadership warned Wednesday against the dangers of using the US veto that torpedoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli reoccupation of the northern Gaza Strip and said it was as a cover for more Israeli massacres and crimes against the Palestinian people.

The US on Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning and demanding an end to the Israeli invasion of the northern Gaza Strip, thereby giving a green light to Israel to commit more atrocities against the Palestinian people.

“Deeply regretting” the US veto, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “warned against the dangers and ramifications of this veto, which will only perpetuate the aggression by the extreme Israeli government and will be used as a cover to commit further crimes against our people,” the PLO said in a statement released by the official news agency WAFA.

Sharon’s government will use the US veto “to absolve itself from all international agreements and resolutions and to evade negotiations and the peace process,” the PLO said following a meeting of its Executive Committee chaired by President Arafat at his besieged headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.

The draft resolution, which Arab nations endorsed on Monday, expresses “grave concern at the continued deterioration of the situation on the ground” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and calls on Israel and the Palestinians to immediately implement the Quartet-drafted, UN-adopted “roadmap” peace plan.

US envoy to UN, John Danforth, said the draft resolution was “unbalanced.”

Palestinian Minister for Negotiations Saeb Erakat said on Wednesday the “imbalance should be seen on the ground and not in the wording of a draft resolution presented to the Security Council.”

Erakat added in a statement that Washington continues to show total alliance to Israel, adding that such a bias would contribute to the state of instability and the escalation of violence and terrorism in the Middle East.

He stressed that the Palestine National Authority (PNA) will head to the UN General Assembly and the Swiss government, the sponsor for the Fourth Geneva Convention, to convene urgent meetings to discuss the Israeli escalation and the aggression against Gaza Strip.

The PLO also called upon the Quartet of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia to “put in practice what they said about the importance of the peace process and its resumption, and to implement the (Quartet-drafted and UN-adopted) roadmap on the ground.”

The Palestinian leadership further called for “forming a team of monitors to supervise an instant ceasefire.”

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including a 15-year-old boy, and two Palestinian children identified as Sulaiman Abu Ful, 12, and Raed Abu Zeid, 14 in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabalya early Thursday.

This raises the Palestinian death toll to more than 81, in addition to 360 wounded, since the Israeli reoccupation of the Strip began nine days ago.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters while visiting Grenada on Wednesday the US does not doubt Sharon’s commitment to the “roadmap.”

Washington ‘Satisfied’ With Sharon’s Clarification

Meanwhile on Wednesday evening, the United States asked Israel to clarify statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s senior advisor and chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, stating that the “disengagement” plan means a “freezing of the peace process,” Israel Radio reported.

“The significance of the (Sharon’s) disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process,” Weisglass, one of the initiators of the disengagement plan, said in an interview with Haaretz Friday.

“And when you freeze that process,” Weisglass added, “you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem.”

“Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with (US) authority and permission. All with a presidential (George W. Bush) blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress.”

“The disengagement is actually formaldehyde,” he said. “It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.” (The full interview will appear on Friday.)

State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli, speaking in Washington, said the US told Israel that Weisglass’ comments do not match Israel’s official government position as presented to the US.

But Ereli also said Israel informed the US administration that Sharon remains committed to the “roadmap” peace plan and to President Bush's vision of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Following the publication of parts of the Weisglass interview in Haaretz, Sharon’s bureau released a statement saying he supports the “roadmap” and sees it as the only plan for allowing a final-status agreement.

Haaretz quoted a senior State Department official in Washington as saying that the administration was very satisfied with clarifications of Weisglass’ comments made by the Prime Minister's bureau.

PNA: Weisglass Uncovered Israel’s Real Intentions

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Weisglass has uncovered Israel’s real intentions.

“Weisglass claims that the Americans are supporting him, and I would like once again to hear an American response on that matter,” he said Wednesday.

Earlier, Erakat called on the Bush administration to distance itself from Weisglass’ comments.

“It’s clear that Mr. Weisglass expressed the true intentions of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,” he told The Associated Press, adding, “We hope that President Bush will answer the question now as how to make the Gaza disengagement plan part of the road map and not an alternative to it.”