Israel Relying on U.S. Veto of Sanctions : Mideast: Rabin warns that any U.N. attempt at punishment would undermine peace negotiations.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, declaring that Israel would not relent in the deportation of more than 400 Palestinians, said Sunday that his government is counting on a veto by the United States of any sanctions that the U.N. Security Council might be asked to impose against this country.

Any attempt to force Israel to retreat on the issue or to punish it for the widely criticized move would undermine peace negotiations with his country’s Arab neighbors, Rabin said after meeting with a U.N. special envoy.

“We stand by the decision of the government,” Rabin said after more than two hours of discussions with Chinmaya Gharekhan, the U.N. diplomat, on the future of more than 400 Palestinians deported last month from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on suspicion of supporting militant Islamic groups.

“I don’t want to guess what will happen,” Rabin continued, referring to Arab calls for U.N. sanctions, “but I made every effort to make clear that any severe steps taken by the Security Council . . . will seriously harm the chances of continuing the peace talks.”

Israel fully expects the United States, whether the outgoing Bush Administration or the incoming Administration of President-elect Bill Clinton, to oppose U.N. sanctions and, if necessary, to veto the resolution, Rabin aides added. Israel, they said, had discussed the issue with both Bush and Clinton officials.

“Any damage to Israel will make the Arab states think that Israel has been weakened,” Rabin said, “and that won’t bring peace.”

Israel began peace talks with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians in October, 1991, but the negotiations have stalled in recent months. The chief Palestinian negotiator said last week that he will boycott the round set to resume Feb. 24 if the deportees are not returned, and several other members of the Palestinian delegation said they also will not participate.

Zalman Shoval, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said over the weekend that the State Department had assured him it would block any U.N. sanctions against Israel. “I hope very much that Shoval’s assessment is correct,” Rabin said.

Gharekhan will return to New York to report to U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who had warned last week that he would recommend unspecified measures to the Security Council if Israel refused to meet its demand and allow the men to return.

“I cannot say what the Security Council will do,” Gharekhan said. He is the second U.N. envoy to visit Israel since the expulsions; the first mission also failed to budge Israel. The Palestinians, expelled Dec. 17 in retaliation for the killing of six Israeli soldiers and police by Islamic militants, remain stranded in a freezing tent camp on a snow-covered mountainside in southern Lebanon, trapped between Israel’s self-declared “security zone” and Lebanese military lines.

On Sunday, Lebanon refused to permit the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to evacuate nine of the Palestinians who Israel said were mistakenly deported and could return, albeit to face criminal charges.

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said in Beirut: “The Red Cross cannot use the U.N. helicopter any more. We permitted them to use it on Saturday because they said it was a fact-finding mission. We gave them permission to do an assessment of the camp and nothing else. If they want to take the nine out, they can take them through Israeli lines. But we will not open the door.”

After evacuating one sick deportee on Saturday along with a 16-year-old youth Israel said it expelled in error, the Red Cross hoped to lift nine other men out on Sunday, and Israel had agreed.

Lebanon, however, wants the deportees to return through the Israeli security zone, forcing the dismantling of the fortifications, including mine fields, placed on the route by Israeli troops and those belonging to its local militia, the South Lebanon Army.

The tough Lebanese position is making it difficult to find a way out, Israeli officials said.