Arab states seek fast UN action on barrier ruling

8.15am

NEW YORK - Arab states called on Monday for an emergency UN General Assembly session to demand that Israel comply with a ruling that its West Bank barrier is illegal and that it must pay reparations to Palestinians who suffered losses due to the wall's construction.

The Arab Group at the United Nations asked that an emergency session of the 191-nation assembly be convened on Friday to take up a resolution seeking to implement last week's ruling by the International Court of Justice, Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa said.

The court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, issued a non-binding ruling on Friday that the 600km barrier under construction on West Bank lands violates international law and that both the General Assembly and the Security Council should consider further action to ensure Israeli compliance.

General Assembly resolutions do not carry the weight of international law, as can measures adopted by the 15-nation UN Security Council.

However, al-Kidwa said Arab nations would take their case to the Security Council only later, depending on developments on the ground in the Middle East. He denied the delay was intended to put off a council session until after the November 2 US elections, as some Palestinian officials have said.

Al-Kidwa also disputed Israeli statements that the ruling could be ignored because it was merely an advisory opinion.

"Law-abiding nations ought to respect advisory opinions and comply with their legal obligations as determined by the court," he said.

"The debate now is over the implementation of the legal opinion: how we stop the construction, and how we remove the existing parts, and how we ensure that reparations are paid to the concerned Palestinians," al-Kidwa said.

- REUTERS