Kofi Annan on Tuesday moved toward abandoning a U.N. fault fact-finding mission on Israel's military assault on the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp because of Israel's continued objections. "The secretary-general is minded to disband the team," said Kieran Prendergast, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, after briefing the 15-nation Security Council. Annan was expected to make a decision shortly. Diplomats said he probably would either cancel the mission entirely or resume legal talks with Israeli officials, enabling it to go forward at a future date. "Obviously when the secretary-general makes his decision, we will fully respect it," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told reporters, piously.
Behindthescenesed him. But that's tough to do. It burns a lot of political points for both the U.S. and Israel. We're gonna need all those piety points when Yasser's car explodes or his helicopter crashes. (I shouldn't have said that...) |