U.N. Security Council Continues Work on Mideast Proposals
07 August 2006
Arab League officials among those scheduled to address council regarding Lebanon
United Nations -- Before completing negotiations on the French-U.S. draft resolution dealing with the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, the U.N. Security Council will meet with a delegation from the Arab League because the council wants "to listen to everyone's views," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said August 7.
"We'll hear the views of the Arab League tomorrow and we'll continue to work for what our objective has been since the text was circulated on Saturday [August 5] -- which is the most rapid adoption of the resolution we can get," Bolton said after Security Council President Nana Effah-Apenteng of Ghana announced the meeting.
Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir Al-Thani of Qatar, Foreign Minister Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, and Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa are scheduled to meet with the council in a public session the afternoon of August 8. Israel is expected to ask to address the council session as well.
American and French efforts to get agreement on a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities as a first step in ending the conflict continued throughout the weekend after the two nations presented the draft to all 15 Security Council members August 5. (See related article.)
Some council members have proposed amendments and Qatar, the Arab representative on the council, asked the council to meet with the high-level delegation coming from an Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Beirut, Lebanon.
Qatar's ambassador to the United Nations, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, said his government is not against the resolution. He submitted amendments because "if we just adopt unclear language, that will create domestic problems for the Lebanese."
Bolton said that "it is perfectly appropriate" for the Arab League delegation to meet with the council. "We want to listen to everyone's views and if they think it is important enough to come to New York, it is important enough for us to listen."
Bolton said that he and French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere have worked intensely to prepare the resolution because they "were trying to respond to the mood in the council to have the council take action swiftly," but the two will not rush to have the draft revised before the Arab ministers meet with the Security Council.
Nevertheless, he said, "we'll try and be thinking about ways to take their [Arab League] views into account to continue to move to a vote as soon as other members of the council want."
Bolton said the co-sponsors are trying to accommodate the views of other council members as well as Lebanon and Israel, but he doubted that the final resolution would please everyone.
"If we could write a resolution that would satisfy every party, we probably wouldn't be in a crisis now," he said. "No doubt all concerned parties are dissatisfied with some part of this resolution."
To arrive at the August 5 draft, American and French officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have been in close contact with the Lebanese and Israeli governments, the ambassador pointed out. "It's not as though we drafted this resolution in a closet somewhere and suddenly sprang the text on any member government."
"The effort has to be not to achieve perfect agreement or completely satisfy anyone because that is not possible at the present juncture, but to take the concrete steps we need to get on the road to a lasting solution," Bolton said.
Diplomats say that a vote on the resolution could come as early as August 9.
Talking with journalists after a closed-door council meeting, Bolton discussed one part of the resolution that has emerged as controversial -- the mention of Shebaa Farms. Both Syria and Lebanon have laid claim to Shebaa Farms, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Shebaa Farms is an issue between Syria and Lebanon and the draft resolution appropriately asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to submit proposals for addressing the sovereignty issue, the ambassador said. "To try to prejudge an outcome at this point would be a mistake."
"The draft resolution quite properly lists the full delineation of Lebanon's international borders -- which also means the Syrian border, including in those areas that are disputed or uncertain including Shebaa Farms," he said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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