The Palestinians backed off from an immediate ban on the UN Mideast envoy after he criticized Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but step-ped up their attacks against him and didn't rule out a future ban.
Terje Roed-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat who describes himself as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's "eyes and ears on the ground" in the Middle East, was at the center of a diplomatic storm after a briefing to the UN Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nearing the end of his Mideast mission, Roed-Larsen expressed frustration at the lack of progress toward peace and blamed Arafat for blocking vital reforms in the Palestinian Authority and peace moves backed by the world body.
PHOTO: AP
Arafat's top adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, described the UN envoy as "useless" and said he was no longer welcome in Palestinian areas. But Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer at the UN, said Roed-Larsen's legal status has not been decided and would be discussed with Annan when the secretary-general returns next week.
Al-Kidwa refused to say whether the Palestinians will ask Annan to remove Roed-Larsen, but he made clear that comments by Rdeneh and others reflected "real Palestinian anger" at the UN envoy's positions -- and that anger is not about to go away.
"We respect the United Nations as an institution. We know the rules and we play by the rules. No actions will be taken to prevent Mr. Larsen from entering the Palestinian territory. However, the position of the Palestinian officials is something else," Al-Kidwa said.
Al-Kidwa called the UN envoy's briefing "absolutely unacceptable," arguing that it "reflects basically an amalgamation of Israeli and American positions."
His office issued a six-point rebuttal of Roed-Larsen's briefing, complaining that it made "scant mention" of the world court ruling demanding that Israel tear down the separation barrier it is building to isolate the West Bank and "incomprehensively praised [Israeli] Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's initiative" in calling for a withdrawal from Gaza.
"The briefing waged unfair attacks against the Palestinian Authority and its president," it said. "Moreover, the briefing constituted a vulgar interference with internal Palestinian affairs and more importantly, it exempted Israel, the occupying power, from its direct responsibility for the current serious difficulties facing the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people."
After Tuesday's briefing, Roed-Larsen insisted that his report was balanced, noting that he also pressed Israel to pull out of the West Bank and Gaza and remove restrictions on Palestinians.
Roed-Larsen was not available for comment on Wednesday, but Annan came to his defense, as did US Ambassador John Danforth.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,