On Friday, the four national sponsors of the United Nations Human Rights Council's controversial official report into the Gaza War decided to defer a vote to adopt its conclusions until March 2010. The Palestinian deputy permanent observer at the international forum, Imad Zuhairi, claimed the move, supported by the PLO, was designed to ensure that the resolution will enjoy the widest possible consensus among the council's 47 members.
The Palestinian Authority has emphasised that it still fully supports the report's conclusions, referring to it as ‘professional and unbiased', and Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi has said that they will continue to pursue a legal resolution to the reports findings. However, the Palestinian delegation admitted that the potential for the vote to jeopardise the resumption of talks between the Palestinians and Israelis was also a factor in the decision. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday that any attempt to formally endorse the report would deal a fatal blow to attempts to the peace process. The so-called Goldstone Report accuses both Israelis and Palestinians of war crimes but, despite accepting that the Gaza War was an act of Israeli self-defence, nonetheless accuses Israel of the deliberate disproportionate use of force. The report has been castigated by Israel and has met with severe criticism from the US.
The ToD Verdict: Diplomatic sources have told Reuters that the decision to defer the Human Rights Council's vote on the Gaza report came as a result of intense pressure from the United States. The Obama administration views the resumption of the currently moribund peace process a central diplomatic goal, and Benyamin Netanyahu has been unwavering in his demands that the report on the Gaza War be disavowed by the international community. Consequently, a formal vote on the report was very clearly a red line which, if crossed, would lead to Israel refusing to engage in renewed talks.
Despite the decision to delay the ratification of the report's findings however, the talks face a host of other serious obstacles. Netanyahu's demand that any future Palestinian state should be completely demilitarised was met with anger and indignation by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Although the release on Friday of a ‘proof of life' video of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli solider held in captivity by Hamas for the last three years, was answered in Jerusalem by the release of twenty Palestinian women from Israeli detention, the exchange should not be taken as an indication of bargaining space between Israel and Hamas. There are still over 10,000 Palestinians held in captivity, under conditions that are frequently criticised by international humanitarian agencies.
On Saturday, Israeli aircraft struck at targets in Gaza, causing damage but no casualties. The IDF claimed the air strikes hit two tunnels used for smuggling arms from Egypt to Gaza and a munitions factory. These latest strikes give some indication of the Likud government's reluctance to ease the military siege of Gaza before any talks take place. Meanwhile, Obama's recent failure to restrain Israeli settlement construction on the West Bank does not bode well for the successful resolution of, among other issues, the status of East Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refuges or the sovereignty of any potential Palestinian state.
Aung San Suu Kyi appeal denied
On Friday, Burmese officials confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her extended detention had been quashed by the courts. Following a bizarre incident in which a US citizen swam across a lake to her residence uninvited, Suu Kyi was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest in August. Critics of the military junta that rules Burma have interpreted the move as a cynical attempt to prevent her participating in democratic elections scheduled to take place next year.
While general secretary of the National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi won the last freely held elections in 1990 by an overwhelming 82% of the vote, but was prevented from becoming Prime Minister by the intervention of the military. She has been in detention for fourteen of the last twenty years.
The rejection of the appeal comes days after the US confirmed that it was pursuing fresh engagement with the Myanmar government. On Tuesday, the US assistant secretary of state for Asia, Kurt Campbell, revealed he had met with Myanmar health Minister U Thaung in the first high-level meeting in decades. The two-hour meeting, which took place during the convention of the UN General Assembly, was described by Campbell as ‘formal, careful and very respectful'. Suu Kyi's treatment was described as being at ‘the top of the list' of concerns raised with Thaung.
Obama and top US Afghan commander in talks
On Friday, US President Barack Obama met with the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, in Copenhagen. It was the first meeting between the two men since General McChrystal submitted his ‘Initial Assessment' to the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. The 66-page report painted a bleak picture of the political-military situation in Afghanistan and has sparked an intense debate within the administration about the correct strategy to pursue.
Their meeting comes one day after Obama was subjected to renewed pressure from Republican members of Congress to open strategy discussions to the legislature. Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008 and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for senior military commanders to testify before Congress no later than 15 November. The request has, for the time being, been flatly rejected by the administration, with Secretary Gates saying that it would be inappropriate for military commanders to openly discuss the advice currently being given to the President.
Controversy focuses on General McChrystal's request for as many as 40,000 additional troops to bolster attempts to suppress the Taliban insurgency. President Obama has already doubled American forces in Afghanistan to 62,000 and further increases are likely to meet with opposition from within his own party. Analysts predict that General McChrystal will receive backing from the head of US Central Command, David Petraeus, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his call for reinforcements. There has been some speculation that recent moves by McChrystal, including his appearance on ‘60 Minutes' last week, have been calculated to increase pressure on the Whitehouse to acquiesce to troop increases.