U.N. Mideast line swayed by U.S., Israel: ex-envoy Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:39PM EDT
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A former U.N. Middle East envoy quit his job last
month making bitter allegations that U.N. policy in the region had failed
because it was subservient to U.S. and Israeli interests, according to a leaked
document.
In a confidential end-of-mission report, seen by Reuters, Alvaro de Soto
poured scorn on the Quartet negotiating group of the United States, Russia,
European Union and United Nations, and suggested the world body should pull out.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday the report represented
De Soto's personal views and disputed his former envoy's conclusion that the
Quartet had become a "side-show".
De Soto, a Peruvian diplomat who formerly worked on El Salvador, Cyprus and
the Western Sahara, spent two years on the Middle East before resigning in May,
ending a 25-year U.N. career. He was replaced by Briton Michael Williams.
His scathing 53-page farewell, addressed to a handful of top U.N. officials
and first reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper in Wednesday editions, made
clear he left because he was frustrated that he was being ignored.
In the document dated May 5, he railed at restrictions he said were placed on
him by U.N. headquarters against talking to the Hamas-led Palestinian
government and to Syria.
De Soto condemned economic sanctions imposed by Israel, the United States and
the EU on Hamas after it won Palestinian elections last year and said their
effective endorsement by the Quartet had had "devastating consequences" for
Palestinians.
"The steps taken by the international community with the presumed purpose of
bringing about a Palestinian entity that will live in peace with its neighbor
Israel have had precisely the opposite effect," he wrote.
"Even-handedness has been pummeled into submission in an unprecedented way
since the beginning of 2007."
SIDE-SHOW
Speaking to reporters, Ban regretted that De Soto's report had leaked out,
but said: "I'd like to make it clear that this is his personal view. I would
not agree with his point that the Quartet has been kind of some side-show."
He said the grouping had been "re-energized" and noted that at its next
meeting, in Egypt later this month, it would meet Israeli, Palestinian,
Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, Qatari, Syrian and Arab League officials.
De Soto sharply criticized the Islamist Hamas movement for advocating
Israel's destruction, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a foe of Hamas, for
weak leadership, and the Palestinian failure to halt militant attacks on
Israeli civilians.
But he also charged that Israeli policies seemed "perversely designed to
encourage the continued action by Palestinian militants."
De Soto blasted what he called "the tendency that exists among U.S.
policy-makers ... to cower before any hint of Israeli displeasure and to pander
shamelessly before Israeli-linked audiences."
But much of his criticism was aimed at the United Nations, where, he said, "a
premium is put on good relations with the U.S. and improving the U.N.'s
relationship with Israel."
"I don't honestly think the U.N. does Israel any favors at all by not
speaking frankly to it about its failings regarding the peace process," De Soto
said.
He said Ban should "seriously reconsider" continued U.N. membership in the
Quartet, which he said had become "pretty much a group of friends of the U.S."
De Soto said he regretted that his advice to U.N. headquarters had gone
unheeded. "I concluded that my uphill effort was not going to succeed," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1337665520070613
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