The Security Council is scheduled this week to set a new date to vote on a resolution imposing sanctions against Israel for annexing the Golan Heights. The Council was to have voted on a Jordanian draft resolution last Friday, but the meeting was abrupty cancelled at Jordan’s request because, according to observers, the measure did not have the nine votes needed for adoption by the 15-member Council.
The key factor in the decision to postpone a vote, sources said, was Panama’s move last Thursday night to reverse its position of supporting the Jordanian resolution. Without Panama, the Jordanian measure would have received support of only eight Council members — China, Guyana, Jordan, Poland, the Soviet Union, Spain, Togo and Uganda.
Even if the resolution had obtained nine votes, the draft was believed certain to be vetoed by the United States and possibly Britain and France. Without the required minimum of nine affirmative votes the resolution could not be adopted and the negative votes of the big powers would not count as vetoes. This, according to observers, would have provided Israel with an unintended victory.
The Council unanimously demanded last month that Israel rescind its decision to apply its laws and jurisdiction to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, and threatened “appropriate measures” by January 5 if Israel failed to do so. When Israel did not rescind its Golan action the Council went into session on January 6 to debate “appropriate measures.”
A Syrian resolution calling for mandatory sanctions against Israel — severing economic, military and diplomatic relations — was viewed as too harsh by the U.S. and other Western powers. Efforts were undertaken by Spain, Japan and Ireland to modify this extreme resolution by calling for “voluntary” sanctions. Zaire, separately, offered a resolution which it hoped would be agreeable to both Syria and the U.S. These efforts failed.