UN Security Council Mounts Open Debate Over Middle East Crisis

With the announced cancellation of a United Nations fact-finding mission to Jenin dominating the discussion, the Security Council Friday held an extended open debate of the situation in the Middle East, including the issue of Palestine.

Representatives of about 30 countries signed up to take the floor in the debate. Speaking at the outset, UN Observer for Palestine Nasser Kidwa strongly condemned Israel's rejection of the fact-finding mission.

He said the council should request the secretary-general to dispatch the team immediately, and require the two sides to cooperate with it.

"The Arab Group had tabled a draft along those lines, which had,unfortunately, not gained enough support in the face of opposition by a permanent member of the Council," he said.

"The backtracking by the Security Council in the face of Israeli rejection will constitute a genuine scandal," he said. It was "an abdication on the part of the council of its responsibilities, in addition to the serious political and operational implications on the ground."

Defending Israel's position, Ambassador Yehuda Lancry said the council's resolution on the team had not stipulated that it reach any legal conclusions or make recommendations.

"In calling for an examination of the events, Israel did not think it too much to expect that the team address the activities of both sides, including the use of a UN-administered camp as a center for terrorist activity," he said.

He also cited a UN General Assembly resolution on fact-finding missions, which included provisions regarding confidentiality, the right of States to express their views, and the obligation for the fact-finding team to respect local laws and to engage in its mission in cooperation with the parties concerned.

There were "47 Palestinian gunmen killed, 23 Israeli soldiers killed, and 7 Palestinian civilians, whose deaths we profoundly regret," Lancry said. He argued that this "did not constitute a massacre,"

The debate was broken for closed-door consultations to hear a briefing by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his aides on Thursday's meeting of the diplomatic "Quartet" in Washington D.C., and the three-day UN-Iraq talks at UN headquarters.

(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2002)