United Nations, Sept 16: The UN Security Council has delayed voting on a resolution condemning Israel for plans to oust Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, after a day-long and often testy debate.
Nation after nation took to the microphone and blasted Israel over the plan, which was approved by Israel's security cabinet last week after two more Palestinian suicide bombers carried out deadly attacks inside Israel.
British ambassador and acting council president Emyr Jones Parry said that he expected a vote today after Syria, which sponsored the resolution, mulled suggested changes to the measure.
Jones Parry and his US counterpart John Negroponte both said that they wanted to see a more "balanced" resolution. The US ambassador repeatedly said Washington would not back a measure that did not condemn Palestinian "terrorist" groups.

He called the current proposal "very lopsided, one-sided resolution, totally against Israel and supportive of the Palestinian position... It doesn't contain the explicit condemnation of terrorism that we think ought to be in there."
Yesterday's debate, which saw the Palestinian envoy storm out of the council as his Israeli opposite number took the floor, began with a grim assessment of the peace process by the UN's chief middle east envoy, Terje Roed Larsen. He said that the process had been brought to a standstill and that not enough had been done to pressure the Israelis and Palestinians to implement the so-called international "road map" proposed by the United States, the United Nations, European Union and Russia.

Bureau Report