One of the first foreign policy issues facing Barack Obama when he takes office in January will be to decide whether the United States will participate in a United Nations conference on topics close to his heart: racism and discrimination.
The Bush administration has indicated that American diplomats would not attend the so-called “Durban II” review conference, scheduled for April in Geneva. The current administration has expressed concern that the conference would turn into an anti-Israel event, just as the first U.N. conference on the subject did seven years ago in the South African city of Durban.
In mid-November, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the United Jewish Communities General Assembly that Israel has decided to skip the Geneva conference after reviewing a draft statement issued following a preparatory meeting. The draft accuses Israel of “practices of racial discrimination against the Palestinians,” saying that its policies constitute “a new kind of apartheid, a crime against humanity [and] a form of genocide.”
Read more...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment it is much appreciated.