April 25, 2002
The Security Council met late Wednesday to discuss a draft resolution demanding that Israel immediately lift its siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters, but adjourned without a vote.
The draft, made available to reporters, also demanded that Israel lift the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and that it cooperate fully with a UN fact-finding team into the army's assault on the Jenin refugee camp.
Diplomats said the council would reconvene late Thursday after talks between the UN and Israel, which has asked for changes to the team's composition clarification of its mission. The talks, between the head of the UN's political department and envoys from the Israeli army and the defence and foreign ministries, were due to start at 2000 GMT Thursday.
The draft resolution demanded "that Israel, the occupying power, and the Palestinian Authority, cooperate fully with the fact-finding team appointed by the secretary general (Kofi Annan) without any hindrance or conditions." If adopted, it would be the fourth on the crisis since March 30, when the council demanded in Resolution 1402 that both sides cease fire and that the Israeli army pull out of the West Bank.
Not only has 1402 not been implemented, but dozens if not hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since then in the battle for Jenin, along with 23 Israeli soldiers.
The draft, submitted by the group of Arab nations, said the council was "gravely concerned at the continuation of the Israeli military siege" on Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah and at the "endangerment" of his personal safety.
The wording echoed a statement to the press made late Tuesday by the council president, Sergei Lavrov, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, after an explosion at Arafat's compound.
"Members of the council shouldn't have any difficulty with the language, since they accepted it yesterday," the observer of Palestine to the UN, Nasser Al-Kidwa told reporters.
"We are not looking for more resolutions, we are looking for results. The difference is one of format, and the legal meaning of that format," he added. Resolutions of the council are legally binding upon all UN member states.
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