UNITED NATIONS: Oct 7 (South News) - With the United States abstaining, the Security Council approved a non-aligned nations resolution Saturday condemning the ''excessive use of force'' that has left over 80 Palestinians dead.
In the bitterly fought-over resolution demanded by the Palestinians, 14 council members voted in favor of calling for an immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and backed ''a speedy and objective inquiry'' into the fighting.
Washington has traditionally tried to stop motion condemning Israel But the Palestinians persisted, and on Thursday the council began negotiating a draft resolution submitted by Malaysia on behalf of the Non-aligned Movment.
Council members belonging to the 114-member Non-aligned Movement of developing nations had been pressing for condemnation of Israel for the past week at the urging of Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser al-Kidwa.
The resolution condemns the ``excessive use of force against the Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life.'' It indirectly blames Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, for provoking the week-long rioting after his Sept. 28 visit to a shrine in Jerusalem's Old City, holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Neither Israel nor Sharon are mentioned by name, a concession to the United States, but its implication is clear and one reason Washington abstained, diplomats said.
``The United States does not think it was a very good resolution, to put it mildly,'' U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke told reporters after the vote. ``We decided in the end, because of certain changes and improvements in it, that it was no longer clearly in veto land. We were prepared to veto it.''
Holbrooke said he would have preferred the equivalent of a line-item veto but one sponsor of the resolution, but the mover Malaysia, would not allow it. Other sponsors were Bangladesh, Jamaica, Mali, Namibia, Tunisia and Ukraine.
The document, initiated by the Palestinians, also called for an immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and supported ``a speedy and objective inquiry'' into the violence, without saying who should conduct the probe.
Fears mounted that a U.S. veto on the resolution would only exacerbate the violence among the Palestinians and their supporters in Lebanon and elsewhere.
But Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said ''We think that the resolution contains extremely important elements. It could help alleviate the gravity on the ground and hopefully help bring the situation under control.''
The United States had tried to head off the resolution, saying council action would interfere with efforts to try to end the bloodshed and salvage the Middle East peace process.
The resolution also says Israel should ``abide scrupulously'' by its obligations under the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with protection of civilians in time of war. But it no longer specifies that the convention is applicable to all the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt during the 1967 Middle East war.