UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10: Arab nations on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution barring Israel from building a security fence around the Palestinian West Bank.

In a letter circulated to the 15-member UN Security Council on behalf of the 22-nation Arab League, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Feisal Mekhad called the proposed fence a “an expansionist conquest wall”.

US Ambassador John Negroponte, current UNSC president, said the council members agreed to hold closed-door consultations on the letter and draft on Friday. “We have not yet scheduled an open meeting.”

The representative of the Palestinian authority circulated a text which denounces both the security fence and Israeli plans to build over 600 new homes in Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

The Palestinian draft resolution is the second text seeking condemnation of Israel to come before the council in five days, joining a Syrian draft introduced on Sunday after Israel attacked what it said was a training camp for Palestinian militants near Damascus. Syria insists it was a civilian site.

However, diplomats here say that without studying the resolution, the US has indicated that it would veto the resolution when it comes for a vote next week.

Washington has also threatened to veto a resolution on Syria. Since its introduction, the Syrian draft has stalled in the council for lack of support.

Many council diplomats said it would have to add language critical of Arab militant groups launching suicide attacks against Israel to win the nine votes needed for passage, a linkage Syria has so far refused to accept.

As for the vote on the Palestinian resolution, chief Palestinian observer Nasser al-Kidwa left open the timing of an eventual vote on his own draft resolution, which would declare that building the security barrier beyond Israel’s 1967 borders violates international law and “must be ceased and reversed”.

“We can wait. There is no problem whatsoever. But at the same time, we don’t want to have a time gap between the second phase of building the wall and action in the Security Council,” al-Kidwa told reporters.