Israel
Raises
Stakes on
Silence on
Attacks on Its
Diplomats In
India, Ban Qs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 21 --
Five days ago,
Israel's
ambassador Ron
Prosor
complained
that the UN
"Security
Council should
have condemned
these attacks
immediately.
Israel expects
it to issue a
clear
condemnation
today."
But
still no
Security
Council
statement has
been issued.
Inner City
Press learned
on Tuesday
from sources
close to the
Israeli
mission that
the attempt
now is to
"work through
India," where
one of the
attacks on
diplomats took
place, and
which is in
the second of
a two-year
stint
on the
Security
Council.
Some
point to the
Security
Council's
press
statement of
November 29,
2011,
condemning
attacks on UK
diplomatic
facilities in
Iran.
One well
placed Council
source told
Inner City
Press there's
a move to
discuss the
attacks in
"closed
consultations"
on February
22, "the first
time
the Council
will hold such
consultations
since the
attacks" due
to the
members' trip
to Haiti.
The
problem, the
source told
Inner City
Press, will be
if there is an
attempt to
assign blame.
There
remains
surprise as
the "weakness"
of Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
response, a
"mere" note to
correspondents.
Sources in the
Executive
Office of the
Secretary
General
indicated that
this is
because
"nobody died."
But Ban has
issued
stronger
statements,
the complaint
goes, in cases
in which no
one was
actually
killed.
Ambassador
Prosor
came to the
Security
Council on
Tuesday
afternoon;
Israel was on
the
list of
speakers in
the all day
debate on
crime and the
Sahel. He
assigned blame
-- saying that
Hezbollah is
active in West
Africa -- and
said "as we
saw last week
in New Delhi,
Bangkok and
Tblisi." But
only one of
those three
venue
countries is
on the
Security
Council. Watch
this site.
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