US frowns on UN Security Council's anti-Israel draft resolution

The United States rages against a proposed UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that calls on the Israeli regime to stop all its illegal settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.

"Our view is that the introduction of this resolution was unhelpful," Vedant Patel, deputy US State Department's spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday.

The draft resolution would demand that the Israeli regime "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory."

The measure "reaffirms" that the regime's settlement construction activities across the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 "has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."

The draft was referring to the West Bank, including East al-Quds, that the regime occupied during a heavily-Western-backed war that year.

Ever since the occupation, the regime has set up more than 250 illegal settlements across the West Bank that have come to house more than half a million settlers.

The draft text also lambasted the Israeli regime over its regular practice of "legalizing" or "retroactively authorizing" the settler outposts that have been built across the occupied territory without the regime's so-called approval.

Earlier in February, the Israeli cabinet granted such permits to as many as nine settler outposts, raising international condemnation.

Referring to such structures, the draft resolution condemned "all attempts at annexation, including decisions and measures by Israel regarding settlements, including settlement outposts," and called for their immediate reversal.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the situation in Palestine. It is not clear yet whether the body would put the draft to a vote during the upcoming session.

MG