UNSG BAN in Jerusalem with Netanyahu, in Ramallah with Abbas

UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, then Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. After both meetings, there was a press conference. In Jerusalem with Netanyahu, BAN said “Settlements do not help the peace process… I told the prime minister that he should refrain from future construction”. [Just future construction? [...]

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Abbas asks for UN membership for the State of Palestine, Netanyahu says Palestinians must make peace first

Mahmoud Abbas got a second series of standing ovations — a week after he told his people from Ramallah on 16 September that he was going to ask the UN Security Council for full UN membership for the State of Palestine — on 23 September, when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York. [...]

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Obama: Palestinians deserve…

U.S. President Barack Obama, in his annual address to the UN General Assembly, said Wednesday that “Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state”. As if they don’t know. Or — as if someone else should tell them. Since their 1988 Declaration of Independence, the Palestinian National Council agreed to form their state [...]

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What is the UNSG’s position on Palestinian state membership in UN?

In this Al-Jazeera International interview with a nicely designed set — possibly in the UNSG’s 38th floor office, it seems — UNSG BAN Ki-Moon speaks with Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, and says: “Membership in UN is something that is up to the member states of the UN … It does not fall within my mandate [...]

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Former IDF Chief of Staff says “We’re sorry” – just hours before release of UN report on Mavi Marmara deaths

The New York Times has posted a leaked, advance copy of the “Final” Report commissioned by the UN Secretary-General on how to avoid a repetition of the mayhem and deaths that occurred during the Israeli naval interception on the high seas of a Freedom Flotilla aiming to break the Israeli siege on Gaza. During the [...]

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Turkey disagrees with UN report on legality of Israeli naval blockade of Gaza

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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UNSG’s new report on UNDOF mentions Golan minefields + Palestinian protests

The UN Secretary-General’s new report raises more questions than answers about two protests that turned deadly in the Golan Heights in the past month in which people who the UN report identified as “civilians”, and “largely young unarmed Palestinians” overran Syrian, UN, and Israeli lines — in an attempt to enter an area under Israeli [...]

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UNSC adopts resolution authorizing protection of civilians in Libya

The UN Security Council acted overnight to authorize — some say, belatedly — international action to protection of civilians and areas of civilian population that are under threat of attack in Libya, by adopting UNSC Resolution 1973. It began by calling for an immediate cease-fire. The text explicitly mentions Benghazi, which is was under imminent [...]

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Terrifying situation in Libya – and what are world leaders now cooking up to deal with it?

In today’s UN Security Council meeting at UNHQ/NY, Libya’s Ambassador Mohammad Abdel-Rahman Shalgham (until today, apparently loyal to Col. Muammar Qaddhafi, and according to AFP his childhood friend) formally joined his deputy (Ibrahim Dabbashi), and the opposition to the current regime in his country. Shalgham reportedly told the Security Council: “Please, the United Nations, save [...]

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Israeli decision to participated in UN Panel on Freedom Flotilla: “UNprecedented”

Given Israel’s new-found appreciation of international law, it should not be too surprising: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Monday), 2.8.10, informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that Israel would participate in the panel that he is establishing in the wake of the 31.5.10 events regarding the flotilla”, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office has announced. According to [...]

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