Posted on November 1st, 2011 by Marian Houk
Quiet satisfaction in Jerusalem — East Jerusalem, that is — the day after UNESCO voted to admit Palestine as a full member state. According to one adviser to UNRWA, the vote count has been revised to 114 votes in favor [not just 107, as was reported yesterday]… But, because my internet was down from morning [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, USA, United Nations, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on October 26th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Envoys from the Quartet met, separately, with Israeli and Palestinians at the UN’s lovely and venerable Government House — the seat of government built by the British during the Palestine Mandate period — on the southern edge of Jerusalem today. The location seems to have been specially selected to please the Palestinian side, and was [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet
Posted on July 29th, 2011 by Marian Houk
The tone in Robert Serry’s voice conveyed an urgency greater than the mere words on paper. On Tuesday [26 July], during the now-regular monthly meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East, Serry — who is the new UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and also Personal Representative of the [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on July 19th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Özdem Sanberk, described as “one of Turkey’s most experienced diplomats”, said in an interview published in Turkey on Monday that his government does not agree with all of the still-unpublished conclusions in a 90-page report of a panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into the forceful Israeli interception of the Mavi Marmara [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Turkey, UN Secretary-General
Posted on March 7th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Nabil El-Araby (ElAraby) has been named the Foreign Minister of the new Egypt. A brilliant choice. See his separate opinion on the Advisory Opinion on the Wall, here, written when he served as a Judge on the International Court of Justice: “What I consider relevant to emphasize is that this special responsibility [of the United [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Egypt, International Court of Justice - ICJ, United Nations
Posted on February 27th, 2011 by Marian Houk
In the UN Security Council meeting on Libya on Saturday (26 Feb.) the French put their foot down, and insisted that the violence being carried out by loyalists and agents of the current regime in Libya against the people of Libya must be referred to the International Criminal Court. UNSC resolution 1970 was adopted unanimously. [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Human Rights, Libya, Mercenaries, Sanctions, UN Security Council
Posted on October 18th, 2010 by Marian Houk
In a monthly report to the UN Security Council today, the UN political affairs department has just reported that: (1) “[Palestinian] Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad briefed AHLC [Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, meaning major donors] members as well as Arab League Foreign Ministers that commitments of donor funding for 2010 remain critically below what is necessary [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Gaza, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, UN Security Council
Posted on July 12th, 2010 by Marian Houk
If Israel was ambivalent (or of several minds) about the applicability of international law, prior to the Israeli naval assault on the Freedom Flotilla in the pre-dawn hours of 31 May, the Israeli government has now rediscovered its value. Professor Ruth Lapidot, a former legal adviser to Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is one of [...]
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Filed under: Academic studies and research, Ambassadors and other diplomats, Boundaries & Borders, Egypt, Gaza, Humanitarian Aid, International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on June 29th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Hossein Mousavian, a former lead Iranian nuclear negotiator has relocated to America, taking up residence at Princeton University, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Actually, he’s apparently been at Princeton for ten months already. Mousavian was been Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami [who preceeded the present President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad], then [...]
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Filed under: Academic studies and research, Ambassadors and other diplomats, Iran, Negotiators and negotiations, Nuclear technology and weapons
Posted on June 16th, 2010 by Marian Houk
It now appears, two weeks after the Israeli naval raid on the Freedom Flotilla bound for Gaza, that the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza’s maritime space will only be strengthened, with European and American help to engage in a complicated inspection regime in the Mediterranean Sea — while Israeli military-administered sanctions against Gaza via its [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Boundaries & Borders, European Union, Gaza, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Sanctions
