Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that although he would have preferred the United States vetoed, rather than abstained, on a UN Security Council resolution condemning recent violence in the Middle East, he understood the US position.
Speaking from Israel on NBC's Meet the Press program, Barak said "I understand the considerations of the American State Department, of Mrs. Albright and Mr. Holbrooke."
The UN resolution, approved late Saturday, condemned the "the excessive use of force" against Palestinians in clashes with Israeli forces.
After working to water-down harsher language, Richard Holbrooke, the permanent US representative to the United Nations described it as "one-sided" and the United States abstained from the vote.
Barak reiterated his position that the violence between young Palestinians and Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza had been deliberately organized by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
However, "there is an agreement within our reach, put on the table through the ideas of President Clinton at Camp David and it's up to Chairman Arafat to make up his mind," Barak said.
"It might take a few weeks to formalize a kind of framework agreement and maybe a few months to detail it to the last letter ... It is clear that we have a few weeks, not years to, kind of, recycle the whole process," he said.
Barak said Arafat had not honored commitments to disarm the Palestinian youth organization reportedly leading the stone-throwing and "even allowed his policemen and security people and the Tanzim to shoot at our people with the same rifle we gave them two or three years ago."
But, when asked about whether a "war" could break out with other countries in the region, Barak said he preferred not to use the word, "not to create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy."
During the interview, Barak did not himself raise the subject of a two-day deadline which he gave Arafat Saturday to bring an end to the attacks on Israeli positions.
When pressed on the deadline, he said, "I believe that if within the next two days we will not see real calm on the ground, I will have no choice but to interpret it as a deliberate decision by Mr. Arafat to put an end to the negotiation and go toward conflict” -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
