The United States was expected today to veto a modified draft resolution regarding Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. The Security Council is scheduled to meet late this afternoon to vote on the draft resolution which is a watered down version of an earlier resolution calling for sanctions against Israel and urging all member states to sever diplomatic relations with Israel.
The revised draft resolution, submitted to the Security Council by Jordan, states in its major operative passage: “The Security Council decides that all member states should consider applying concrete and effective measures in order to nullify the Israeli annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights and to refrain from providing any assistance or aid to and cooperation with Israel in all fields, in order to deter Israel in its policies and practices of annexation.”
Today’s draft resolution differed sharply from the original draft in that it does not call for the imposition of military, economic and diplomatic sanctions against Israel and urges member states only to “consider” effective measures against it.
The vote on the original draft, also submitted by Jordan, the only Arab country presently on the Security Council, was withheld last Friday when it became apparent that the extreme anti-Israel resolution would not receive the minimum nine votes needed for adoption by the 15-member Security Council. Panama and Zaire balked, leaving it two votes short.
Today’s modified draft is expected to receive nine votes but to be vetoed by the U.S. But Britain and France, which had been expected to veto the original draft, may abstain in today’s voting.
The Security Council demanded on December 17 that Israel rescind its decision, taken by the Knesset on December 14, to apply Israeli law and jurisdiction to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. It gave Israel until January 5 to comply. Israel ignored the resolution and the Security Council reconvened on January 6 to consider further action.
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