UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- The UN Security Council adopted a vague Presidential Statement at 2 am on Tuesday, in the wake of Monday's assault by the Israeli Defense Forces on the flotilla to Gaza. Afterward, Inner City Press asked first the new President of the Council, Mexico's Claude Heller, then US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, what the provisions means. Their interpretations were entirely different.
The Presidential Statement calls for an investigation which is "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent." US Deputy Permanent Representative Wolff told Inner City Press this means that Israel can do it.
Claude Heller, on the other hand, only Council President for less than three hours, said that it should be an independent investigation panel, named by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Heller also told Inner City Press that the PRST's reference to "the use of force" and "those acts" were both directed at the Israeli military. But the US and Israel, apparently, have another reading.
Inner City Press live-blogged the twists and turns of the day's Council action from just outside it, here.
Palestine's Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour ended by saying the Arab Group and the Non Aligned Movement will be lobbying S-G Ban Ki-moon. Presumably the US will be lobbying the other way...
Footnote: Ironically, the Non Aligned Movement earlier this year lobbied Ban to say that he had no authority to name a panel, even to advise himself, about accountability for 30,000 estimated civilian deaths in Sri Lanka. Ban has vowed that he will never the less name that panel, which he announced on March 5. We'll see.
and see, www.innercitypress.com/gaza2ship060110.html