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New Zealand circulates UN Security Council resolution to renews peace talks
New Zealand has begun to circulate a draft United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution intended to instigate the renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
New Zealand is one of ten non-permanent members serving a two-year term on the 15 member Security Council. The UNSC has failed to agree on any motion regarding the peace process since 2009. Nonetheless, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully said last week that the current violence in the region “cry out for action.”
The draft resolution has been sent to UNSC members, Israel, the PA and other involved regional parties. The Jerusalem Post says that New Zealand’s non-resident ambassador to Israel, Jonathan Curry met with Israel’s National Security Council head Yoram Cohen yesterday in Jerusalem, in order to discuss the resolution.
The text itself, which has been seen by both Reuters and AP “calls on all parties to take the necessary steps to rebuild trust … and to prepare to return to negotiations.” It asks for the Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia), UNSC members and sponsors of the Arab peace initiative to help Israel and the PA prepare for talks, which were suspended in April 2014 after PA President Mahmoud Abbas agreed a unity government with Hamas.
In the interim, the resolution calls on Israel to refrain from “continued expansion of settlements and demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied territories” and for the PA to desist from “referring a situation concerning Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories to the International Criminal Court.”
However, Israeli officials are reportedly concerned that such an arrangement would reward Palestinian refusal to accept Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ongoing invitation to negotiate directly without preconditions. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon said, “The only way to achieve peace is through direct talks between the parties,” he said. “The best way to reduce tensions in the region is to urge President Abbas to accept Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call to meet with him.”