Reuters
U.S. set to veto UN Yassin vote
Date: Thursday March 25, 07:13 AM
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Palestinian and Arab ambassadors want the U.N. Security Council today to condemn Israel for killing a Hamas leader in a resolution the United States has made clear it will veto.
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the quadriplegic spiritual leader of Hamas, was targeted on Monday in an Israeli helicopter missile strike outside a mosque in Gaza.
The killing has been criticised around the world as sparking an escalation of Middle East violence.
Algeria, the only Arab nation on the 15-member council, introduced a draft resolution late on Wednesday condemning "the most recent extrajudicial execution committed by Israel." It has scheduled a vote late on Thursday.
The measure also condemns "all attacks against any civilians as well as all acts of violence and destruction" in an effort to get European votes.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, has said it is troubled by the assassination that has echoed throughout the Islamic world. But it opposes the draft resolution because it does not mention Hamas as a group responsible for suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.
"If the Security Council is going to pronounce itself on this question, it must recognise the reality that Hamas has been responsible for numerous, extensive and very recent terrorist activities," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia and China are permanent Security Council members with veto rights.
NINE VOTES NEEDED
If a council resolution receives the minimum nine votes needed for adoption and is vetoed, the sponsors can call an emergency session of the 191-nation General Assembly, where a measure critical of Israel is bound to be adopted.
Assembly resolutions, compared to those passed by the Security Council are not binding, except on issues such as U.N. budgets, but express the will of nations around the world.
Reaching nine votes depends in part on the four European Union members and their allies in the Security Council.
Diplomats foresee a similar split as the past controversial votes on a Middle East resolution -- Britain and Germany abstaining and France and Spain approving the measure,
The United States, Russia, the European Union as well as the United Nations are members of a quartet of Middle East advisers but have rarely had a unified position on the issue in the Security Council.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday, called Yassin the "godfather of the suicide bombers."
He told reporters that the United Nations could play a key role in Middle East peace efforts and discourage attacks on Israeli civilians by holding a special session against "the phenomenon of terrorism."
Shalom said that "would be a clear sharp voice that would come from this building against terrorism, against extremism and against racism."
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