| The Middle East issue has split the UN Security Council At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, convened on Monday night (Moscow time) at the request of Syria, no decisions were made. The reason for the complaint was the Israeli Air Force's raid on the Palestinian camp Ain Sahab, 50 km from Damascus, the day before. The Syrian draft resolution condemns "Israel's military aggression committed against the sovereignty and territory of Syria" and is fraught with "dire consequences" for the Middle East region.
Tel Aviv believes that Ain Sahab is a training camp for the radical Islamic Jihad movement, whose suicide bomber carried out an explosion in the city of Haifa last Saturday, killing 19 civilians. Israel's permanent representative to the UN, Dan Gillerman, called the missile and bomb attack on Syrian territory an "act of self-defense." He accused Damascus of supporting the Islamic Jihad movement. Immediately after his speech, Gillerman left the Security Council premises, citing the holy fast of Yom Kippur (Judgment Day). So the rest of the speeches (including the Arab representatives) were made in the absence of the Israeli.
Israel is so confident in the United States that it did not find it necessary to warn the White House about the impending strike. On Sunday, President George W. Bush, in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, expressed condolences over the deaths of civilians in Haifa and called on Tel Aviv and Damascus to “avoid further escalation of tension.” Israel responded that they did not rule out new attacks on targets in Syria.
The Americans really supported the Israeli allies. At the Security Council, US Permanent Representative to the UN John Negroponte demanded that Damascus “break with those who plan and direct the actions of terrorists from Syrian territory . ” At the instigation of the Israelis, the Americans announced that “what is needed now is not another resolution, but the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure by the Syrian government.”
The Syrians, meanwhile, announced that the said Palestinian camp was peaceful, and that after the Israeli strike, there were wounded among its residents. It should be noted that other (besides the Americans) members of the Security Council, although they condemned the terrorist attack in Haifa, considered the Israeli strike on Syria unjustified. “This attack is an unacceptable violation of international law,” said French representative Jean-Marc de la Sablière. “The understandable outrage over the terrorist attacks cannot be allowed to impede the peace process,” said British permanent representative Emyr Jones-Perry. Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern about the growing conflict in the region. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder spoke even more categorically: “Violation of the sovereignty of a third country complicates peace processes. There is no justification for what happened in Syria.”
In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov spoke more cautiously. Moscow believes that it is advisable to adopt a UN Security Council resolution that would persuade both the Palestinians and the Israelis to fulfill their obligations set out in the international road map for a Middle East settlement. According to the first deputy Russian permanent representative to the UN, Gennady Gatilov, actions like the Israeli one “lead to the expansion of the geographical scope of confrontation and are fraught with dramatic consequences.”
Currently, the draft resolution on Syria is being studied in the capitals of 15 Security Council member countries. Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN |
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