Global Policy Forum

By Barbara Crossette

The Security Council, deflecting an Arab request for a stronger resolution demanding Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities, met today in two private sessions with the representatives of Israel and the Palestinians to urge an end to the conflict.

Council members said before the meetings that the two diplomats — Yehuda Lancry of Israel and Nasser al-Kidwa of the Observer Mission of Palestine — would be asked to press their governments on demands for a cease-fire, the most recent of which was made in a resolution early on Saturday. The Council has no means of enforcing that resolution or earlier ones, however, and Arab nations had been seeking, at a minimum, to increase pressure for compliance, particularly from Israel.

Spain, which has assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union, brought in Israel's ambassador in Madrid to demand that Israel do essentially what was requested in the United Nations resolution: pull troops out of Palestinian areas, agree to an immediate cease-fire and allow Mr. Arafat to go free. In addition, the European Union has called an extraordinary summit meeting of foreign ministers for Wednesday in either Brussels or Luxembourg to step up pressure on Israel.

Also, the Arab League, the 22-nation group that met in Beirut last week to endorse the peace plan advanced by the Saudi crown prince, said it would also meet in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss ways to help Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader. At the United Nations today, Singapore proposed holding follow-up meetings with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, drawing on a tactic used in the past in other wars. Council members agreed that this was a better course than adopting what a diplomat called a "we really mean it" resolution so soon after the Saturday vote.

The Council met over lunch today with Secretary General Kofi Annan, who attended the Arab League meeting last week in Beirut. Mr. Annan, briefing the Council on Monday, said he feared that "the parties are locked in the logic of war." The Arab nations have appeared weaker as a group because they are no longer speaking with a single voice here, Council members say. Syria, a Council member since January, publicly protests Israeli attacks on Palestinians but is considered generally hostile to Mr. Arafat. The animosity dates from the Oslo accords in which Mr. Arafat did not, the Syrians argue, take their interests into account in talks with Israel.

Diplomats said the rift between Syria and the Palestinians has left Mr. Kidwa, the United Nations Palestinian observer, without a strong voice on his behalf in the Council chamber. Syria became a Council member for two years because the Arab nations have a policy of rotating the seat in a more or less strict order. A European diplomat said the Syrians arrived untutored in "dialogue, discussion and compromise." The Syrian delegation has refused twice in recent weeks to join a Council consensus on the Middle East.

Tonight, Mr. Kidwa said that the Arab group would resubmit its resolution, possibly on Wednesday, and that this time, the Syrians would lend support. "This is a positive development, which we welcome," Mr. Kidwa said. Diplomats have also been watching the United States delegation, though for different reasons. Over the last month, the Americans have for the first time in half a century taken the initiative to involve the Security Council in action on the Middle East, which had been considered the preserve of Washington, not the United Nations.

Today, several diplomats said the American delegation, led by Ambassador John D. Negroponte and his deputy, Ambassador James B. Cunningham, both career envoys, has been flexible and helpful in drafting evenhanded resolutions critical of Israel as well as the Palestinians. An American-sponsored resolution on March 12 stated clearly that there should be two nations in the region, Israel and Palestine, living in peace. Last weekend, the Americans were part of the consensus that produced a 14-0 vote on a resolution asking Israel to withdraw from Ramallah and other Palestinian towns, and urging a cease-fire on both sides.

Security Council members said there was no sequence of events in those demands, despite comments from the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, that appeared to give priority to the cease-fire. This is not the first time that the Security Council has appeared to receive conflicting signals from Washington, with the United States mission here prepared to blame both sides while President Bush and other administration officials seem to place more blame on the Palestinians.

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