A Palestinian diplomat has unveiled plans to ask the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding that Israel reverse a decision to extend a security wall deeper into the West Bank.
Palestinian UN envoy Nasser al-Kidwa said he would ask Arab nations on Monday to approve a draft resolution and request an emergency Security Council meeting to consider it.
The draft resolution would make the point that the planned security barrier "is illegal and should be stopped," al-Kidwa told journalists yesterday.
It would also oppose Israeli plans to build more than 600 new homes in Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, he added.
"We were hoping the Americans would be able to stop these activities, but this doesn't seem to be the case," he said.
However Washington, Israel's closest ally, although having pressed Israel to stop construction of the wall and end its settlement activity, opposes raising such issues in the Security Council.
US Ambassador John Negroponte last month vetoed a council resolution demanding that Israel back away from announced plans "to remove" Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, arguing the text was biased against Israel.
Arab nations later took a slightly modified text to the 191-nation UN General Assembly, where the United States does not have a veto. The assembly adopted it by a lopsided 133-4 vote with 15 abstentions.
Negroponte, who said he vetoed the resolution in the 15-nation Security Council because it failed to explicitly condemn Palestinian groups blamed for suicide attacks, said the road map to Palestinian statehood put forward by the quartet of international mediators was the only peace plan on the table.
But the quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - issued a statement last week at the United Nations criticising the security fence and urging Israel to end settlement activity.
The road map sets out steps to be taken by both sides on the way to setting up a Palestinian state by 2005.
But it has bogged down over Israeli demands that the Palestinian Authority first crack down on militants and Palestinian suspicions Israel would give nothing in return, even if the authority dismantled militant groups like Hamas.