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Bolton Says Palestinian Resolutions Demonstrate UN Irrelevance

(Bloomberg) U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the UN General Assembly demonstrated its irrelevance Thursday by adopting six resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including non-binding calls for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Golan Heights. The General Assembly passed resolutions very similar to measures introduced annually by Arab nations for at least 30 years. The U.S. was joined by no more than seven other nations in rejecting the resolutions, which won up to 160 votes. "These resolutions are purely symbolic," Bolton told reporters at the UN. "It is one reason why many people say the UN is not really useful in solving actual problems. We have been making enormous progress toward solutions in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that progress has benefited from UN participation, but it does not benefit from needless repetition of meaningless resolutions in the General Assembly." Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said, "It is very disappointing that the very positive changes in the region, such as Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, seem to have absolutely no effect on this ongoing tedious ritual....It shows that as far as the Palestinians are concerned, there is no present or future, only the past happening over and over again."
2005-12-02 00:00:00
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