Jerusalem, June 1 (DPA) A UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its navy raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, was ‘unacceptable and did not advance peace and stability in the Middle East’, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday.
A statement issued by the minister’s office said Lieberman also told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in a telephone conversation, that the ‘hypocrisy and double standards of the international community concerning Israel’ should be ‘regretted’.
Monday’s pre-dawn raid by the Israeli navy commandos on the six-ship flotilla, which carried pro-Palestinian activists and tonnes of aid for blockaded Gaza, led to violent clashes on board one of the ships which left nine activists dead.
Lieberman told Moon that while the international community remained silent during the past month when ‘500 people were killed in various incidents in Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and India,’ Israel ‘was condemned for taking a clear defensive action’.
He said the Israeli troops who battled the activists on board the ship had the ‘basic right’ to defend themselves against a group wielding iron bars, clubs and knives.
