Ban Ki Moon to refer Goldstone report to UN Security Council

Ma'an
The UN Security Council will begin discussions of the Goldstone report at the earliest available opportunity, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday.

The announcement followed the overwhelming majority decision by the members of the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling first for the endorsement of the report's call for independent investigations on the alleged war crimes from Israel and Palestinian factions under the supervision of the secretary-general, and second for the report to be taken up to the Security Council. The vote was passed Thursday.

Voting for the resolution were 114 countries, including China, Russia, Arab and Non-aligned states, as well as some South American and European countries. Eighteen voted against, including Israel, the US, Canada, Italy and Australia, while 44 abstained, including most EU countries, including France and the UK.

Prior to the vote there were concerns that the Arab Group, backed by the PLO's envoy, would tone down the report's content in an effort to make it more amenable to European Union support. Analysts say the failure to soften the language led to the abstention votes from much of Europe. Full story