Ghana backs call for halt in Israeli offensive

New York -- Ghana and nine other countries voted in favour Thursday night of a Qatar-introduced resolution at the UN Security Council demanding that Israel halt its military offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and that it releases the Palestinian officials it has arrested, the adoption of which, however, was blocked by a veto by the US, while the four other member countries on the 15-member Security Council abstained.

Ten countries voted in favour of the draft resolution, which was sponsored by Qatar on behalf of other Arab countries, namely Argentina, China, Congo, France, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Qatar, Russia and Tanzania, while Denmark, the UK, Peru and Slovakia abstained.

The final draft, which was repeatedly reworked to iron out concerns that it was biased against Israel -- including the addition of a call for the immediate and unconditional release of a 19-year-old soldier Israeli soldier captured by armed Palestinian groups on June 15 and a call on the Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel -- accused Israel of a "disproportionate use of force" that endangered Palestinian civilians, and demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza.

The resolution further called on Israel and the Palestinians to "take immediate steps to create the necesssary conditions for the resumption of negotiations and restarting the peace process", while it urged all parties to help alleviate the "dire humanitarian situation" faced by Palestinians.

Despite the additions, US representative to the UN, Ambassador John Bolton, claimed that the draft was "still unacceptable" because it had been "overtaken" by events in the reginon, including the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants on Wednesday, and "unbalanced".

This was the first veto at the UN Security Council in nearly four years. The last veto, also cast by the US, blocked a resolution in October 2004 condemning another Israeli operation in Gaza. Eight of the last nine vetoes in the Security Council have been cast by the US, seven of which concerned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Security Council will be holding another urgent session on Friday, to discuss the situation in the Middle East, at the request of the government of Lebanon.