Lebanon Blocks UN Statement Condemning Eilat Attack

Lebanon, which is currently a member of the United Nations Security Council, prevented early Saturday a condemnation of the recent heroic resistance attack in Eilat in the southern occupied territories. Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor expressed his disappointment with Beirut’s move, noting that Lebanon is itself “a state controlled by a terrorist organization.” The UN envoy said that the latest fiasco proved that the UN has become “blind and deaf” when it comes to condemning “terror attacks against Israeli citizens”. “The UN secretary general condemned it, the Americans condemned it, the European Union condemned it, yet the bottom line is that the Security Council again failed as a body,” he said. “Every time an issue pertains to Israel, we see deafening silence. They become blind and deaf.” A draft proposal for a presidential statement was distributed to the Security Council’s 15 members Thursday. The United States, Europe and India vigorously supported a harsh UN denunciation of the attack in “Israel”, yet the Arab representative in the Council, Lebanon, announced Friday that it will endorse such censure only if it is “balanced” with a condemnation of Israel’s barbaric strikes in the Gaza Strip. Europe, the US and Israel rejected the Lebanese equation, in essence burying the condemnation and demonstrating yet again that the UN is unable to address some of the most vital issues on its agenda. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council in an effort to halt Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement Saturday morning Palestinian media reported. According to the statement, Abbas instructed Palestinian representative at the United Nations Riyad Mansour to call for an urgent session of the Security Council to discuss the airstrikes on Gaza. ARAB LEAGUE EMERGENCY SESSION On the other hand, the Arab League is to discuss the latest Israeli airstrikes on Gaza strip in an emergency meeting on Sunday. "The Arab League will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, at the request of Palestine, to examine the repercussions of the dangerous situation following Israel's continuous aggression on Gaza," the deputy leader of the group, Ahmed Ben Helli told AFP news agency on Saturday. Ben Helli said the meeting would be attended in Cairo by the permanent delegates of the 22-member pan-Arab organization.

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