On
Settlements,
NAM &
IBSA Take Qs,
EU Doesn't,
Bibi Helped,
Olmert in
Dock?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 19 --
Deciding not
to force a US
veto, 14 of
the UN
Security
Council's 15
members signed
on to
statements
Wednesday on
Israel's
settlements.
The
Council's four
European
members stood
together as UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant read
their
statement.
Inner City
Press was told
by two
spokespeople
that there
would be no
questions.
Some
argue that
these
statements
make the
electoral
positions of
Netanyahu
and those to
his right
stronger for
the January 22
elections.
Regarding the
International
Criminal
Court, it's
argued that
Palestine
could simply
ask to revive
its filing
about
Operation Cast
Lead, and that
if the ICC now
took up the
case, one
under
investigation
would be Ehud
Olmert.
When
India's
Permanent
Representative
Hardeep Singh
Puri read a
statement
he said was
for NAM which
has eight
members on the
Council --
Togo
and Azerbaijan
were not at
the stakeout
-- he agreed
to take
questions.
Inner
City Press
asked Puri why
no vote had
been called.
He said,
because
the 15th
member would
not agree.
(Earlier, US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
left the
Council and UN
building,
stopping to
speak to Inner
City
Press about
Mali, story
here.)
Moments
later
after South
Africa's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Mashabane
read the
statement of
IBSA (India,
Brazil and
South Africa),
Inner
City Press
asked the same
question: why
was no vote in
the Security
Council
called, as it
was on Syria?
It
was Hardeep
Singh Puri who
answered,
explaining
that on Syria
there
had been
statements
agreed prior
to the double
veto by Russia
and
China. But
there was a
press
statement,
bland as it
was, agreed
after
the Gaza
ceasefire.
China's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Wang spoke
next. Inner
City Press
asked him, as
he left the
stakeout, what
China thinks
of the
Quartet."They
should
continue," and
do more, he
said.
Sinophiles
translate, and
agree: the
Quartet is not
doing enough.
(Russia's
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
spoke earlier,
during
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's end
of the year
press
conference at
which Inner
City Press, on
behalf of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked that all
Under
Secretaries
General hold
press
conference,
and
about the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo).
Israel's
Permanent
Representative
Ron Prosor
spoke,
complete with
a chart with
a map of
Israel, the
West Bank and
Gaza,
highlighting
the 60
kilometers
between them
on the topic
of contiguity.
He did not
take
questions at
the stakeout.
Afterward
as
noted it was
argued to
Inner City
Press that
even these
statements
make the
electoral
positions of
Netanyahu and
those to his
right
stronger for
the January 22
elections. It
was noted,
regarding the
International
Criminal
Court, that
Palestine
could simply
ask to
revive its
filing about
Operation Cast
Lead, and that
if the ICC now
took up the
case, one
under
investigation
would be Ehud
Olmert. Ah,
politics.
Watch this
site.
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