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UN Members Point Finger at U.S. for Refusing to Condemn Israel over Settlement Construction
(AP-Washington Post) Fourteen members of the UN Security Council pointed a finger at the U.S. Tuesday for blocking condemnation of Israel's continued settlement construction. Washington vetoed a resolution in February that would have demanded an immediate halt to all settlement building. Payton Knopf, the U.S. Mission's deputy spokesman, told AP that the U.S. opposes Security Council action on "final status issues" because this "would only harden the positions of both sides and make the resumption of negotiations more difficult." Karean Peretz, spokeswoman for Israel's UN Mission, questioned why the Security Council was focusing on settlements but remained "silent and paralyzed" on pressing issues including civilian killings in Syria, terrorist groups operating in Gaza, attacks on UN forces in Lebanon and Iran's quest for nuclear weapons. "The main obstacle to peace has been, and remains, the Palestinians' claim to the so-called right of return (for refugees) and its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state," she said.