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Secret UN report
condemns US for Middle East failures
Envoy's damning verdict revealed as violence takes Gaza closer
to civil war
Read Alvaro de Soto's end of mission report
By Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
and Ian Williams in New York
06/13/07 "The
Guardian" -- -- The highest ranking UN official
in Israel has warned that American pressure has "pummelled into
submission" the UN's role as an impartial Middle East negotiator
in a damning confidential report.
The 53-page "End of Mission Report" by Alvaro de Soto, the UN's
Middle East envoy, obtained by the Guardian, presents a
devastating account of failed diplomacy and condemns the
sweeping boycott of the Palestinian government. It is dated May
5 this year, just before Mr de Soto stepped down.
The revelations from inside the UN come after another day of
escalating violence in Gaza, when at least 26 Palestinians were
killed after Hamas fighters launched a major assault.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the rival Fatah
group, warned he was facing an attempted coup.
Mr de Soto condemns Israel for setting unachievable
preconditions for talks and the Palestinians for their violence.
Western-led peace negotiations have become largely irrelevant,
he says.
Mr de Soto is a Peruvian diplomat who worked for the UN for 25
years in El Salvador, Cyprus and Western Sahara. He says:
· The international boycott of the Palestinians, introduced
after Hamas won elections last year, was "at best extremely
short-sighted" and had "devastating consequences" for the
Palestinian people
· Israel has adopted an "essentially rejectionist" stance
towards the Palestinians
· The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the US, the EU,
Russia and the UN - has become a "side-show"
·The Palestinian record of stopping violence against Israel is
"patchy at best, reprehensible at worst"
Mr de Soto acknowledges in the report that he is its sole
author. It was meant only for senior UN officials, and its
wording is far more critical than the public pronouncements of
UN diplomats. Last night, Mr de Soto, who is in New York, told
the Guardian: "It is a confidential document and not intended
for publication."
In January last year, the Quartet called on the newly elected
Hamas government to commit to non-violence, recognise Israel and
accept previous agreements. When Hamas refused to sign up to the
principles, the international community halted direct funding to
the Palestinian government and Israel started to freeze the
monthly tax revenues that it had agreed to pass to the
Palestinians. Several hundred million dollars remain frozen.
Mr de Soto, who had opposed the boycott, said this position
"effectively transformed the Quartet from a
negotiation-promoting foursome guided by a common document [the
road map for peace] into a body that was all-but imposing
sanctions on a freely elected government of a people under
occupation as well as setting unattainable preconditions for
dialogue".
The EU said yesterday that there was an imminent risk of civil
war if fighting went on, and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon
urged support for Mr Abbas's efforts "to restore law and order".
In the heaviest day of fighting in Gaza for months, Hamas
appeared to make its first concerted effort to seize power in
Gaza. There was a wave of co-ordinated attacks, which appeared
to overwhelm the larger but less effective Fatah force.
"Decisiveness will be in the field," said Islam Shahwan, a
spokesman for the Hamas military wing.
Fatah's central committee called an emergency meeting in
Ramallah, in the West Bank, and said it would suspend the
activities of its ministers in the government. Fatah would pull
out of the government if the fighting failed to stop, it said.
For the first time in several weeks, fighting spread to the West
Bank when Fatah gunmen attacked a Hamas television studio in
Ramallah and kidnapped a Hamas deputy cabinet minister from the
city.
The day began with a rocket attack on the private house in Gaza
of Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and a Hamas leader. He was
in the building but was not hurt. Fighting spread across Gaza
City and within hours Hamas fighters issued warnings over
loudspeakers calling on all Fatah security forces to pull out of
their bases and return home. At about 2pm Hamas gunmen seized
control of several small Fatah bases and one large base in
northern Gaza, where there were heavy casualties when Hamas
fighters fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the
compound.
Several Fatah officers complained that they had received no
orders during the day. Mr Abbas tried calling for a truce, and
later Fatah ordered its officers to fight back
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
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