The United States blocked a draft United Nations Security Council statement on Wednesday that would have expressed regret at Israel's decision to eject a foreign observer force from the flashpoint city of Hebron, diplomats said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week he would not renew the mandate of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, accusing the observers of anti-Israel activity.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council discussed Israel's decision behind closed doors on Wednesday at the request of Kuwait and Indonesia, which also drafted the statement. Such a statement has to be agreed by consensus.
U.N. diplomats said the United States did not believe a council statement on the issue was appropriate.
The draft statement would have also recognized the importance of the TIPH mission and its "efforts to foster calm in a highly sensitive area and fragile situation on the ground, which risks further deteriorating." The United States has long accused the United Nations of anti-Israel bias and shields its ally from Security Council action.
The TIPH was set up after settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians who were praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994. The city has also seen numerous Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against settlers and security forces. The TIPH draws staff from Norway, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Its website says it has 64 international staff in the city. An Israeli official said its mandate ends on Jan. 31.
Yishai Fleisher, a spokesman for the Hebron Jewish community, said earlier this week that the TIPH observers have "created an atmosphere of conflict, not a congenial atmosphere of peace."
The TIPH has monitored "breaches of the agreements [and] violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law," the force's website says.
Indonesia's U.N. ambassador, Dian Djani, told reporters that he and Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi brought up Israel's action because they don't want "to make sure the situation that is already fragile and tense … is not going to worsen."
Al-Otaibi said there was "overwhelming support" for an expression of concern that Israel's action might exacerbate the situation on the ground, saying the mission "was like a preventative tool."
Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba of Equatorial Guinea, the current council president, signaled differences among council members immediately after the meeting, where the U.S. reportedly said Israel had a right not to renew the temporary mission.
Ndong Mba said he had been authorized to inform the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors about Wednesday's meeting and to discuss a proposed Security Council visit to the territory that the Palestinians claim for a future independent state.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador at the U.N., stressed that "it is the duty of the Security Council on the basis of the resolutions" to ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians and said he looked forward to meeting with Ndong Mba "as quickly as possible."
He said the Palestinians will react to a Security Council visit "in the most positive way."
But Al-Otaibi told reporters that council visits require approval by all 15 members as well as the countries involved, so the U.S. and Israel would have to give a green light.
Mansour said it was premature to say whether the trip would go ahead.
"The positive thing is that there is an agreement, an authorization to the president of the Security Council to begin the process of consultation on that issue," he said. "Let us give it time, with a positive expectation that it might happen."
