A U.S. veto is expected to block a bid by Qatar for the UN Security Council to condemn Israel’s latest attack offensive against Jericho jail and its capture of Palestinian prisoners there.
The Qatari Ambassador to the UN, Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, drafted a statement representing Arab nations which demanded a condemnation of "Israel’s violent incursion" in besieging the Jericho jail, and that Israel return the prisoners it seized "and to return the situation to that which existed prior to the Israeli military attack."
Ahmad Sa’adat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is accused of ordering the assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze’evi in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001.
One of the other high-profile prisoners captured in Jericho prison was Fuad Shobaki, the alleged mastermind of a mass weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority in 2002.
Sa’adaat and Shobaki were under British and American custody in Jericho prison as part of a deal between the Palestinian Authority, Israel, the US and UK.
All Palestinian factions have condemned the attack and blamed the US and UK for it. Palestinians argue that the fact that American and British custodians left their posts 20 minutes before the Israeli invasion implies that they facilitated the attack on the prison and the arrest of Sa’adaat.
