The US has vetoed an Arab-backed UN Security Council resolution, which called on Israel to desist from any act of exiling Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and cease any threat to his safety, because it did not condemn terrorist organisations such as Hamas.
Eleven of the 15 members voted on Tuesday in favour of the resolution with the United Kingdom, Germany and Bulgaria abstaining. But a negative vote by the US killed the resolution, which the Council members had discussed for two days.
"It's a black day for the UN. I hope that Israel will not interpret the killing of this resolution as a licence to kill Arafat," Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erakat said after the vote.
Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa said the US, by defying world opinion, had lost its credibility to play an honest broker in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
Explaining the vote, US Ambassador John Negroponte said the US was against forced expulsion or elimination of Arafat but could not support the resolution as it was 'lop-sided'. The resolution should have also contained a robust condemnation of Palestinian terrorist organisations, he said.
Negroponte said the resolution did not contain language that would promote the peace process and 'no useful purpose' would have been served by its passage.