US lawmakers urge UN to seek disarming of Hamas

A group of US lawmakers releases the following statement to the media:

US Congressmen Brad Schneider (IL-10) and Doug Lamborn (CO-05) led a bipartisan group of 149 lawmakers on a letter calling on the United Nations to make the removal of Hamas’s rocket arsenal a top priority.

“The prospect for true and lasting quiet is untenable until Hamas is fully disarmed and its rocket stockpiles are completely eliminated from Gaza,” Schneider said. “Hamas’s massive stores of rockets, with ever increasing range and greater potential lethality, are an absolute barrier to any long-term peace, which is why I led my colleagues on this effort to call on the United Nations to make the immediate elimination of the rockets a top priority.”

“The UN’s purpose is to save mankind from the scourge of war and to defend fundamental human rights, but it is failing to do just that,” Lamborn said. “For some time now, the UN has wrongfully and instinctively condemned Israel. While Israel practices the greatest caution trying to prevent civilian casualties, Hamas uses civilians to protect the rockets it launches at Israel. It is time for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take the necessary steps to remove these rockets, and to support Israel in the effort to destroy the deadly tunnels.”