Congress Members Tell Obama: Use Veto Power in Security Council Against Palestinians

"U.S. President Barack Obama is facing congressional pressure to torpedo a bid to advance Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

In a letter dated April 8, six prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged the president to use his leverage to prevent the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling Israeli settlements illegal or imposing an Israeli withdrawal...

'[O]nly the parties themselves can agree to end their conflict through a negotiated resolution,' they wrote. The letter was signed by three subcommittee heads, including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, as well as by three members of the same subcommittees.

'It is only at the negotiating table, and not at the U.N., that the parties can resolve their complicated differences. Your continued commitment to long-standing U.S. policy to veto one-sided U.N. Security Council resolutions remains fundamentally critical,' they wrote..."