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| US defends Israel''s refusal to allow Libyan ship reach Gaza port |
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| Politics 12/4/2008 9:03:00 AM |
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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 (KUNA) -- The US late Wednesday strongly defended
Israel's decision not to allow a Libyan ship on a humanitarian mission to
reach the port of Gaza, and described the Libyan move using such words as
"dangerous ... irresponsible ... naive ... folly ... propaganda ...
provocative ... and confrontational."
The council met at the request of Libyan envoy Giadallah Ettalhi to take
"urgent action" and compel the "Zionist entity" to allow Al-Marwa ship to
enter the port of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to the population which is
suffering from a three-week blockade.
Ettalhi described the Israeli action as an act of "piracy" as defined by
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and recalled that the
council, during recent months, had adopted a series of resolutions aimed to
suppress that phenomenon, in reference to the pirates' activities off the
coast of Somalia.
He called on the council to condemn the Israeli actions, ensure Israel's
compliance with international law, and hold Israel accountable for its
deliberate violation of the freedom of navigation on the high seas.
In a strongly worded speech, stronger than that of the Israeli envoy, US UN
envoy Alejandro Wolff told the council that the way Libya went about this case
was "dangerous and irresponsible ... to the best of my knowledge, the (UN)
Charter unfortunately has no provision to deal with the folly of states."
"This is not a meeting about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, he argued.
If the objective of the Libya action had been "seriously to provide assistance
to the people of Gaza, there are several ways to do so that do not involve
such provocative, confrontational acts and that would certainly have had a
greater chance of allowing that assistance to get through.
"The manner which Libya chose seems almost designed to guarantee that the
assistance would not be delivered," he said sarcastically.
"One is therefore left with the impression that provocation and perhaps
even propaganda was the intended objective of the Libyan vessel's activity.
The real lesson here is the need to avoid the repetition of such irresponsible
action in how assistance is delivered," he said.
Using precise terminology, he and the British representative explained to
the council that the Israeli action was not an act of piracy as claimed by
Ettalhi.
Israeli UN envoy Gabriella Shalev told the council that since its election
to the Council earlier this year, Libya had prevented any initiative on Middle
East issues that contradicted its "narrow political agenda, even refusing to
participate in briefings by the Israeli Mission."
"Those actions clearly demonstrated that Libya did not understand its role
in the Council, its obligations, and its responsibilities," she said.
She argued that no UN Member State would allow a shipment originating from
a hostile state to reach a territory that served as a launching pad for
terrorist attacks against its citizens.
Addressing Libya's representative across the table, she said if "you, Libya
truly desired to provide humanitarian assistance to Gazans, there were ways
and means to do so," adding that many states, including those without
diplomatic relations with Israel, and international organizations, used those
mechanisms which were coordinated with the international community.
The official did not mention that Israeli authorities have been blocking
delivery of UNRWA humanitarian aid into Gaza for the last three weeks.
She called the Libyan move "provocative" and meant for the media.
Palestinian envoy Riyadh Mansour told the council that Libya's "goodwill
intentions had been necessitated by unusual, unacceptable, and deplorable
circumstances."
The international community must act, he insisted. It was high time that
the international community, including the Council, undertook its collective
duty to exert serious effort to redress the illegal situation in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (OPT) and bring an end to Israel's illegal practices
and policies.
Several speakers emphasized, however, that the current situation was part
of a highly complex set of issues, originating in the larger question of
humanitarian access and the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process.
A press statement distributed by Libya earlier in the day by which the
council would express "deep concern over the possible consequences of the
Israeli military marine harassment, and intimidation in the high sea, against
the Libyan Cargo Ship," will have no chance to be adopted, council diplomats
said.
This was the first time the council met to discuss, indirectly, the
three-week long siege of Gaza.
The US had blocked any council involvement so far.(end)
sj.wsa
KUNA 040903 Dec 08NNNN
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