The UN Security Council approved a resolution Thursday calling for an immediate and durable cease-fire between Hamas and Israeli forces now fighting in the Gaza Strip.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, abstains from voting, as Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, left, and Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev observe, at a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza, at UN headquarters, Thursday.
Photo: AP
The vote was 14-0, with the United States abstaining.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States "fully supports" the goals, text and objectives of the resolution but abstained because the US "thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas, aimed at achieving a cease-fire.
The vote followed three days of intense negotiations between ministers from key Arab nations and the council's veto-wielding Western powers - the United States, Britain and France.
Jerusalem quickly responded to the decision by saying that no UN resolution would dictate when Israel would end its operation in Gaza. Senior officials told Israel Radio early Friday morning that only the achievement of goals defined by the Security Cabinet would establish the cessation of military activity.
"We are all very conscious that peace is made on the ground while resolutions are written in the United Nations," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said. "Our job here is to support the efforts for peace on the ground and to help turn the good words on paper into changes on the ground that are desperately needed."
The agreement was based on a text drafted by Britain and backed by the US and France - all veto-wielding members of the Security Council - and amendments by key Arab negotiators including the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Qatar.
The agreement "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." It "condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism."
It also calls on UN member states "to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable cease-fire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained re-opening" of border crossings.
The agreement also calls for the "unimpeded provision and distribution" of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza, welcomes the opening of "humanitarian corridors," encourages "tangible steps" to Palestinian reconciliation and renewed efforts to achieve Palestinian-Israeli peace "where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace..."
Earlier, Israeli officials in New York maintained their opposition to any Security Council action that would put Hamas on the same footing with Israel.
Israel, as a member state, is legally bound by any resolution in a way that Hamas, operating outside the control of the PA and listed as a terrorist organization by the US and Israel, would not - an asymmetry not typically seen in conflicts involving Security Council consideration.
HERB KEINON, ALLISON HOFFMAN AND YAAKOV KATZ contributed to this report.
