Abbas: Talks go on after flotilla attack

An adviser to Mahmoud Abbas said today that the Palestinian president sees no need to quit indirect Middle East peace talks over Israel’s assault on a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship.

The killing of nine pro-Palestinian activists in Monday’s Israeli raid has raised concern that US-led efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal could be disrupted.

Mr Abbas met late on Monday with senior PLO officials to assess the situation. His adviser Mohammed Ishtayeh says Mr Abbas told the group there is no need to quit the negotiations since the Palestinians are talking to the US and not to Israel.

Earlier, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting, with the Palestinians and Arab nations demanding condemnation and an independent investigation.

The Palestinians and Arabs, backed by a number of council members including Turkey, also called for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, immediately release the ships and humanitarian activists, and allow them to deliver their goods.

UN assistant secretary-general Oscar Fernandez-Taranco said in his briefing to the UN’s most powerful body that the bloodshed on Monday would have been avoided “if repeated calls on Israel to end the counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza had been heeded”.

Turkey’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose country had been a long-time Muslim ally of Israel, called the raid “banditry and piracy” on the high seas and “murder conducted by a state”. He urged the council to adopt a presidential statement circulated by Turkey. Many of the activists aboard the ships were apparently Turks.

The original draft text would have the council condemn the attack by Israeli forces “in the strongest terms” as a violation of international law, express deep regret at the loss of life and call for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to undertake “an independent international investigation... to determine how this bloodshed took place and to ensure that those responsible be held accountable” and consider the issue of compensation.

The draft also calls on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and immediately release the ships and civilians it is holding.

Mr Ban condemned the violence. “I am shocked by reports of killings,” he said in a statement. “It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place.”

After statements from the 15 council members as well as Israel and the Palestinians, the council moved into closed consultations to consider possible action. The consultations then broke into a smaller group including the US, Turkey and Lebanon, which holds the council presidency.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, said he expects further changes to the text. Several diplomats noted that the US, Israel’s closest ally, was waiting for instructions from Washington.

Mr Mansour called the attack on unarmed civilians on board foreign ships in international waters a “war crime”, and said that “those fleets, one after the other, will be coming until the unethical blockade is put to an end and the suffering stops for our people”.

France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud also called for an “independent, credible” investigation that meets international standards, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade.

But US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff made no mention of an international probe, saying: “We expect a credible and transparent investigation and strongly urge the Israeli government to investigate the incident fully.”

While the Palestinians and Turks insisted that those on the ships were humanitarian and human rights activists, Israel’s deputy UN ambassador Daniel Carmon said “this flotilla was anything but a humanitarian mission”.

Some activists had “terrorist history” and its organisers support radical Islamic networks such as Hamas, which controls Gaza and refuses to recognise Israel’s existence, he said.