UN Security Council to consider ‘Palestine’ resolution
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Subject: UN Security Council to consider ‘Palestine’ resolution Tue Dec 02, 2014 4:56 pm
UN Security Council to consider ‘Palestine’ resolution
Palestinian envoy to world body says draft demanding Israeli pullout to ’67 lines to be presented by mid-month
BY AFP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 2, 2014, 3:36 am 12
Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour addressing journalists after a UN Security Council meeting, May 2014. (photo credit: UN/Devra Berkowitz) A draft resolution demanding an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines by 2016, as part of a wider agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will be presented to the UN Security Council by the middle of the month, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said Monday.
Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour said the text, being shepherded by France, is expected to lay out a timeframe for negotiations on a final peace deal and possibly a second deadline for Palestinian statehood.
“The French are moving more and more, trying to bring all the European colleagues together, and I think that eventually they will succeed,” Mansour told AFP.
The French-led European initiative is expected to be discussed in Brussels on Tuesday when US Secretary of State John Kerry holds talks with European ministers during a NATO meeting.
The position of the United States, which has repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions seen as pressuring Israel, will be crucial in deciding if the latest push at the United Nations stands a chance.
The Palestinians, backed by the Arab League, circulated a draft resolution at the end of September that called for an Israeli pullout November 2016.
The text however ran into opposition from the United States and other members of the council, opening the way for the Europeans to try to present an alternative draft.
Mansour said he expected a new draft to be submitted to the council “soon, possibly in the middle of the month,” with a vote to quickly follow.
The new resolution would pave the way for an international conference to launch what is widely seen as a final bid for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, with the involvement of all key international players.
There has been growing international alarm over the spate terror attacks in Jerusalem and other areas and the stalled peace talks on settling Israel’s borders and the fate of Palestinian statehood.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned of a possible new flareup in violence after the devastating 50-day war in Gaza over the summer.
UN diplomats argue that the world can ill afford more violence in the Middle East at a time when Islamic extremists are waging war in Iraq and Syria.
Subject: UN Security Council to consider ‘Palestine’ resolution 
Tue Dec 02, 2014 4:56 pm
