TRIPOLI (Reuters)
Libya stands by its U.N. envoy's comparison of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza to the Holocaust and deplores a walkout by Western diplomats in protest at the comments, official Libyan media reported on Wednesday.
Libya's Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of France, Belgium and Britain and the U.S. charge d'affaires and asked them to explain the April 23 walkout at the U.N. Security Council, the Jana news agency reported.
Western U.N. envoys walked out of a Council discussion that day after a Libyan diplomat likened the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi Holocaust.
"The Libyan representative at the Security Council was right to express the stance of his country," Jana quoted Abdelatti Abidi, head of the ministry's European Affairs department, as saying.
"The representative did not violate the procedures and regulations of the Council or the U.N. Charter when he considered what takes place in Gaza, the starving of people, preventing the entry of electricity, medicine and the killing of innocents as similar to what took place in the concentration camps in the past."
Diplomats said the remarks were made in a speech by Libya's deputy permanent U.N. representative Ibrahim Dabbashi, who also holds the title of ambassador.
Among the diplomats who left the council chamber were the U.S., French, British, Belgian and Costa Rican envoys, diplomats have said. Some others remained. Such protests against fellow Security Council members are rare, diplomats said.
U.S. envoy to the U.N. Alejandro Wolff said the Libyan remarks "reflect a degree of historical ignorance and moral insensitivity".
Jana said that Abidi "asked the four diplomats for clarifications from their countries on the withdrawal and informed them that Libya rejected calling the stand of the Libyan representative at the Council as immoral."
"The withdrawal of the four representatives was an unprecedented move in the history of the Security Council which is a forum for dialogue, concertation and expression of views. The council is not a forum for collective withdrawal."
Israel says its decision to seal border crossings with the Gaza Strip In January was in response to Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel.
The United Nations has warned this has resulted in a humanitarian crisis for the territory's 1.5 million people, most of whom depend on foreign aid. |
