United Nations, Sept 20: The UN General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Israel not to go ahead with its threat to "remove" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the West Bank. The resolution was presented to the assembly after the United States vetoed a similar measure this week at the UN Security Council, saying it did not take into account Palestinian militant groups that have attacked Israel. Today's measure passed 133-4 with 15 abstentions. The United States again voted against, with US ambassador John Negroponte saying the world body should be focused on the internationally backed "roadmap" for peace.
"It is particularly disheartening that this pattern of one-sided recriminations at the UN has begun again," Negroponte said.
"I regret that the United Nations will not send a positive and unified message to support the peace process at the start of this General Assembly."

In addition to the United States, the three other nations that voted against were Israel, the Marshall islands and Micronesia.
As they did ahead of the council vote on Tuesday, the Palestinian and Israeli envoys traded barbs in the hours-long open debate on the resolution, which was sponsored by the UN's bloc of Arab nations.
Palestinian representative Nasser al-Kidwa rejected Israel's description of Arafat as a "terrorist," saying, "The Israelis were the first to introduce terrorism to our region."

Dan Gillerman, the Israeli envoy, said Arafat's "legacy of hijacking and suicide terrorism has become all too real and tragically ... All too global." Bureau Report