Security Council head ‘concerned’ by reported blackball of UN envoy

Alleged order by Liberman to boycott Mladenov as payback for harsh rebuke seen as ‘deeply counter-productive’ by New Zealand FM

By AFP and ToI Staff 15 September 2016, 11:34 pm

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New Zealand's Murray McCully chairing a UN Security Council meeting on September 14, 2015. (UN/JC McIlwaine)

The president of the United Nations Security Council expressed his concern over a recent report that Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman had ordered a boycott of a UN special envoy after his criticism of Israeli demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank.

Liberman is said to have instructed ministry employees and military officials to shun any contact with the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, Channel 2 reported on Wednesday.

Both the Defense Ministry and Mladenov declined to comment on the TV report. An official in Mladenov’s office said the envoy would be in New York on Thursday for a UN Security Council meeting.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully, who holds the UN Security council presidency this month, said he noted “with concern” reports of Liberman’s decision.

“This action, reportedly taken in response to the special coordinator doing the job we all asked him to do, is deeply counter productive,” he said.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov talks to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on June 30, 2016. (screen capture: UN)

In August, Mladenov sharply criticized Israel over continued settlement building, saying a key recent report by the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East peace process calling for a halt went unheeded.

“Its recommendations continue to be ignored, including by a surge in Israeli settlement-related announcements and continuing demolitions,” Mladenov told the Security Council.

The Quartet report was to serve as the basis for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that has been at a standstill since a US initiative collapsed in April 2014.

Mladenov drew fire from Israeli officials following the report

Since July 1, Israel has advanced plans for over 1,000 housing units in East Jerusalem and 735 units in the West Bank, Mladenov told the Security Council.

He singled out the Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem and in Susiya in the southern West Bank, warning that “the demolition of this community would set a dangerous precedent for displacement.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on July 18, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The international community has been expressing growing alarm to the effect that the construction of settlements on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state is killing off prospects for a peace deal based on the two-state solution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected calls for a halt to settlement expansion, arguing that the residential projects are not an obstacle to peace.

A boycott would likely particularly affect Mladenov’s discussions with the Israeli Defense Ministry arm known as COGAT that implements government policies in the Palestinian territories.

In 2014, then-foreign minister Liberman unsuccessfully attempted to expel Mladenov’s predecessor Robert Serry from Israel for proposing a transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas employees in Gaza in an effort to resolve a salary crisis.