Bush overrules Rice on Gaza Agreement with Olmert presses U.S. to nix cease-fire resolution

UNITED NATIONS

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was visibly frustrated when the White House told her to veto a resolution demanding a Hamas-Israeli cease-fire - a resolution she had spent three days negotiating.

The White House said its decision reflected an understanding reached between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Miss Rice persuaded the White House to abstain from voting on the resolution, which passed by a vote of 14-0, said a U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of last week's events. The official requested anonymity to avoid embarrassing the Bush administration.

Israel and Hamas then ignored the resolution, demonstrating a pattern that routinely bedevils the nominally powerful U.N. Security Council. The council has a long history of having its resolutions ignored. Recent examples include:

cIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly rejected the council's unanimous demands that Iran halt uranium enrichment.

cSaddam Hussein accepted U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq with grudging reluctance and often did not provide the full cooperation with them demanded by the council.

cMultiple calls for restraint have gone unanswered by Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

Non-state actors are even less affected: Somali pirates, for example, have shown little fear after their censure by the council. More...

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