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U.S. Criticizes PA Bid to Take Settlement Construction Issue to UN
(Ha'aretz) Shlomo Shamir and Barak Ravid - The U.S. responded with criticism to the Palestinian Authority's circulating a draft resolution to the members of the UN Security Council condemning Israeli construction in the settlements. A senior U.S. official told Ha'aretz: "Final status issues can only be resolved through negotiations between the parties, not by recourse to the UN Security Council. We, therefore, consistently oppose any attempt to take final status issues to the council as such efforts do not move us closer to our goal of two states living side by side in peace and security." Since President Carter in the 1980s, no U.S. administration has supported a Security Council resolution that stated that the settlements are illegal. The traditional U.S. position has been that the settlements are an obstacle to peace. The Americans have made clear to Israeli diplomats that they oppose the Palestinian circulation of the draft resolution to the members of the Security Council, but they did not state clearly that they would veto it. The Palestinians reportedly intend to call for a meeting of the Security Council to vote on the resolution only in January, when Bosnia and Herzegovina replaces the U.S. as president of the council.