U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Calling for Fact-Finding Trip to West Bank, Gaza
The United States on Thursday vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a council fact-finding mission to report on abuses of Palestinians in Israel’s occupied territories. The vote was 14 to 1.
Arab states said the U.S. veto demonstrated the international isolation of the United States and Israel on Middle East issues.
“This resolution does not focus on the real need to move the peace process forward,” U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering said. “Rather, it could too easily become a vehicle which could be misused to generate more needless controversy,” he told the 15-member council after the vote.
“This appears more likely to add to the problems, rather than help resolve the peace process in the region,” he added.
The United States, the U.S. ambassador said, favors an envoy dispatched by the U.N. secretary general to investigate violence in the territories.
Israel, however, opposes any fact-finding mission, and Israeli officials said they will not permit U.N. officials or Security Council members to enter its territory.
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