The USA does not know who to scold: Arafat or Sharon?

Arab countries are trying to take over the UN. Syria initiated the debate in the UN Security Council (Syria will chair the council in June); the discussion will take place on Thursday. There is only one subject to be discussed: the conflict between Palestine and Israel. The USA warned that it would not sign a statement or any other document on the subject, but nobody is waiting for anything else from America. This has already become a tradition: any decree against Israel is vetoed by the United States immediately.

This will most likely happen again. The UN Security Council members realize this, but the show has to take place, since all the tickets have been sold out. Norwegian UN Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby said that approving the document on the subject could result in serious problems, since it is not the time for such discussions, taking into consideration the international conference devoted to the Middle East issue. Other members of the Security Council, observers (basically from the Arab world), were not that punctilious. “The council cannot sit on its hands, watching Israeli troops occupy Palestine. They entered Ramallah, besieged the office of the Palestinian leadership, and isolated other Palestinian towns,” - Palestinian observer to the United Nations Nasser Al-Kidwa claimed.

Palestinians are in American’s favor again. Colin Powell set forth an idea regarding the possible establishment of an interim Palestinian state. Powell said that pronouncing an interim state could be possible within the scope of the efforts connected with the establishment of the Palestinian state. He added that this would help Palestinians achieve certain progress in the nearest future.

Of course, Powell was talking about the Palestinian administration as the government, and he clearly implied that the United States would continue working with Arafat, despite pressure from Israel calling onAmerica to break relations with them. In addition, Ariel Sharon has recently finished his visit to the USA, where he heard only good words from the Americans: the USA is disappointed in Arafat and so on. The time of promises is passing by: neither Israel, nor Palestine believe America, which proves that the USA does not have any real program for solving the Mideast conflict.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov