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Israel summons foreign ambassadors as prime minister insists Obama is behind settlement resolution

Israel summoned the ambassadors of 10 nations to Jerusalem to reprimand them today and continued...
Newstalk
Newstalk

16.09 25 Dec 2016


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Israel summons foreign ambassa...

Israel summons foreign ambassadors as prime minister insists Obama is behind settlement resolution

Newstalk
Newstalk

16.09 25 Dec 2016


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Israel summoned the ambassadors of 10 nations to Jerusalem to reprimand them today and continued to criticise the Obama administration over a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to settlement-building.

Foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the ambassadors summoned on Sunday for the Israeli prime minister’s dressing down include all those from security council members with permanent missions in Israel: Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, France, Britain, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay and Spain. The United States envoy was not summoned.

At the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated what an unidentified Israeli government official contended on Friday - that Washington conspired with the Palestinians to push for the resolution’s adoption. The White House has denied the allegation.

The resolution, which passed on Friday with 14 votes in support and only the US abstaining, condemned Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as constituting a flagrant violation under international law.

It also demanded that states "distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the state of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”.

Netanyahu also accused the US president, Barack Obama, of directly coordinating the resolution at the morning cabinet meeting.

"We have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated its versions and insisted upon its passage," he said.

The rebuke came as Israel continued to retaliate against countries that supported the motion, cutting aid to Senegal, cancelling forthcoming official visits – including by the Ukrainian prime minister – and recalling two of its ambassadors.

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