PARIS, 25 April 2004 — The top UN envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, yesterday stood by his controversial assertion that Israeli policies were poisoning the Middle East, telling reporters that this was a matter of fact and not opinion.
“What I said was that Israel’s policies, not Israel itself, were a poison for the region, and that is the view of everybody in the region and beyond,” Brahimi said after meeting French President Jacques Chirac here.
“That is a fact, not an opinion,” he said on leaving the presidential Elysee Palace. On Friday, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that Brahimi’s original remarks, aired on Radio France International on Wednesday, were his personal opinion and not the official position of the United Nations.
Brahimi said earlier this week his job of forming an Iraqi government was being complicated by “the Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians”.
The United Nations attempted Friday to distance Annan from his top envoy’s description of Israel, but Israel said it wasn’t satisfied and is considering a formal protest
At the UN briefing on Friday, spokesman Fred Eckhard was grilled about whether Brahimi’s comments reflected the UN position toward Israel.
“As a preliminary reaction, I could say that, as you know, he is a former foreign minister of Algeria and therefore he brings to the table strongly held and strongly expressed views about the Middle East peace process,” Eckhard said.
“However, the official position of the United Nations on such matters is that set out by the secretary-general in the many statements he has issued over the last seven years.” The UN spokesman was pressed several times on whether the United Nations believes Israel is spreading “poison” in the region.
“It’s a politically complex issue,” Eckhard said. “Mr. Brahimi was expressing his personal views... The secretary-general’s views, as expressed over the last seven years, do not contain the word ‘poison’.”
Israel’s deputy UN ambassador Arye Mekel said his country was “very disturbed” by Brahimi’s statement which “puts the objectivity and fairness of the top UN officials in question and increases Israel’s suspicion about the motivation of the United Nations.”
“We are considering a formal protest to the secretary-general,” he said. “We believe that a UN official should not criticize a member state and also - there is no such thing as a private statement by a UN official.”
The UN attempt to distance itself from Brahimi came as the Security Council was being briefed by Annan’s top Mideast envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, who said Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza could “usher in a new era of peacemaking in the Middle East.”
Mekel said Brahimi’s statement was “contradictory” to recent statements by Annan and Roed-Larsen “who praised Israel” for the Gaza disengagement plan. “It is strange to hear that the UN speaks in more than one voice,” he said.
Brahimi continued his criticism of Israel Friday in an ABC television interview with George Stephanopoulos to be broadcast on Sunday. He reiterated that President George W. Bush’s support of the Gaza withdrawal has made his work in Iraq more difficult.
