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On Gaza, Egypt Blames Blockage of Rafah Crossing on
"Other Party," Strange Bedfellows Noted
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 29 -- As Israeli
air
strikes lead residents of the Gaza Strip to seek to flee south to
Egypt,
questions are being raised about the Egyptian government does not fully
open
the Rafah border crossing. Egypt's Ambassador to the UN Maged Abdelaziz
spoke
to the Press on Monday, following meetings with Ban Ki-moon and this
month's
Security Council president Neven Jurica. Inner City Press asked
Ambassador Abdelaziz
to respond to calls to open the border.
"We
have opened the crossing in
Rafah," he said, referring to a few dozen injured allowed through for
medical treatment. "But there is another party on the other side which
somehow
limits the movement of Palestinians who would like to cross the border.
We call
on the other parties to open the border as well." Video here,
from Minute 13:13.
Some
listening to Ambassador Abdelaziz thought he was referring to Hamas,
others to
the European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah, EUBAM. The
Palestinian
Permanent Observer to the UN Riyad Mansour took the microphone next and
emphasized that focus should not "deviate from the consensus" that
Israel should stop its air strikes.
Riyad Mansour and Maged Abdelaziz, "other party" not shown
Early
Sunday
morning, when Inner City Press
asked Riyad Mansour if these events made it more or less likely that
his Fatah and Hamas
could work together, Mansour called this a "distraction."
Apparently,
asking Egypt why it plays a role in closing its border to Gaza is also
a
distraction, or a "deviation."
But the question must be asked. The UN's
humanitarian coordinator John
Holmes was asked about the Rafah crossing earlier
on Monday. Holmes called it
complicated, to allow only one-way passage.
News analysis:
Some in the United States, such as a
right-leaning TV network which asked Holmes the Rafah question, pursue
this as
a way of absolving, or distracting from as Amb. Riyad Mansour might put
it,
Israel's closings of its border crossings with Gaza. But Hezbollah,
too, is
asking or demanding that Egypt open its borders. Strange bedfellows, or
at
least, strange parties to at least on the surface be taking the same
position.
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
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December 12 debate on UN double standards
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City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
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Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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