US vetoes UN resolution on Israeli settlements

The US Tuesday night vetoed a Security Council resolution saying Israeli settlements in occupied territories ''have no legal validity'' and calling for them to be dismantled.

US representative Charles Lichenstein said he vetoed the resolution because its text was ''flawed.'' He stressed that the US vote against the resolution was not an endorsement of Israel's settlement policies.

The most obvious flaw in the draft, he said, was its implication that Israel had carried out forcible transfers of Arab population from the occupied territories. It was also not practical or appropriate to call for the dismantling of existing settlements, he added.