Israel has indicated it may allow an envoy from the U.N. secretary-general into the occupied territories, where the 29-month-long Palestinian uprising exploded this week into some of its most serious violence.
It emphasized before the U.N. Security Council moved into a second day of debate Saturday that it would not accept an international force mandated by the Security Council, as demanded by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat."If the intent is to send anything representing the Security Council, the answer is a flat no," Israeli delegate Benjamin Netanyahu said after the first day of a session held in Geneva, which was chosen as a substitute location to New York because Arafat might have been denied a U.S. visa.
The council was debating the violence that erupted in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip after an Israeli gunman killed seven Palestinian laborers Sunday. At least 16 Palestinians were killed and almost 900 were wounded in the ensuing riots.
Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called for an international emergency force to be set up to protect the Palestinian people and also called for economic sanctions against Israel.
Secretary of State James Baker, in a move that U.S. officials said reflected impatience with Israel's rejection of Washington's peace efforts, said Wednesday that the United States was prepared to discuss sending an observer team.
Netanyahu, Israel's deputy foreign minister, rejected the idea of an observer force but left the door open for a personal envoy of Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar as long as the decision was not mandated by the Security Council.
"Personal emissaries of the secretary-general - we've been approached in the past and, depending on what the purpose was, if he sends somebody, we on occasion have accepted them and on many occasions not accepted them," he said.
Arab states believe a U.N. presence is needed in the occupied territories and would be disappointed if a decision is made not to have a U.N. envoy permanently stationed there.
They expressed satisfaction that the United States was at least willing to discuss some sort of U.N. mission.
"Having a U.N. mechanism of observers to monitor is no longer a taboo in the American diplomatic position," Arab League Ambassador Clovis Maksoud told a news conference. "We have a better opportunity to bring about an international consensus than we had before."
The 15-nation Security Council was unlikely to take action Saturday as it was due to continue its deliberations in New York Tuesday.
Most delegates who addressed Friday's session lambasted the Israeli government, which rejects Baker's proposals for starting an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
British Ambassador Sir Crispin Tickell said Israel should create a government determined to advance the peace process.
"Some good might come out of evil if this tragedy brought home to Israel that to do nothing is unworkable and unsustainable," he said.