Amid tensions between US and Israel over an emerging nuclear deal with Iran and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to fight the White House on such a deal, US Secretary of State John Kerry defended Israel on Monday in a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.
“No one in this room can deny the bias against Israel in the UN Human Rights Council,” Kerry said at a meeting of the body at its Geneva headquarters.
“Every year there are five or six resolutions against Israel,” Kerry said.
He pointed out as an example of the absurd bias, the efforts of Syrian President Bashar Assad to table a resolution against Israel while refugees are fleeing the Syrian civil war to receive medical treatment in Israel.
“It undermines the UN Human Rights Council,” Kerry stated.
“The US will oppose arbitrary efforts to delegitimize Israel. Not just in the UNHRC, but wherever it occurs,” he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also spoke at the UNHRC meeting.
Earlier, a US official told reporters aboard Kerry’s plane to Geneva that any investigations of Israel should be “objective and neutral and not … one-sided and biased.”
The official said that one of Washington’s main concerns was a UN inquiry into last summer’s conflict in Gaza in which more than more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed – the IDF says around half of them were combatants, while the Palestinians claim most were civilians.
The UN investigation, due to issue its report by March 23 during the UNHRC’s 28th session, is looking in to violations by both sides.
The US official said the United States wanted “to try to protect against any follow-on” steps or inquiries after the report is released.
Kerry and Zarif addressed the UNHRC in Geneva as it opened it 28th session, while they were in Geneva for talks on a pending interim agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Kerry also plans to meet with Lavrov to discuss Iran.
While they are in Geneva, Netanyahu plans to speak before the 2015 AIPAC policy conference on Iran. He will also address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to warn about the dangers of a nuclear Iran.
The United States and many of its allies, including Israel, suspect that Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies this, saying the program is for peaceful uses such as generating electricity.
Zarif said on Monday Tehran would try to “go as far as we can” in negotiations with Kerry about Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
Zarif, asked if he was confident about the talks scheduled with Kerry in the Swiss town of Montreux on Tuesday, told Reuters Television in Geneva: “We will try. We will try to go as far as we can.”
If Senator Kohn and his boss really meant this, they would cut off funding for these filthy Nazi savages, or will turn the other way when the IDF is fighting it out on the streets of Geneva (man, they are accumulating more Euronazis cities to have to conquer every day) to get into the UNHRC building to take out this nest of Nazi scum.
I’m suspicious, what’s the angle for this anti-Israel guy whose priority was to stop Israel from hitting Hamas last time? That off-the mike remark said it all.
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Maybe it’s “pretend to be on Israel’s side”… so they can slip the knife to Bibi or Israel in the near future.
The old fake: “I’m on your side”.
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looks ominous- something doesn’t add up.