Israel voiced concern over a planned meeting yesterday between the presidents of Switzerland and Iran as part of a controversial UN conference on racism in Geneva.
Ahead of the conference opening today, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz was due to meet his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a dinner for conference participants yesterday.
“We are going to try to convince the Swiss president not to meet with Ahmadinejad,” Aharon Lechnoyaar, the Israeli representative at UN institutions in Geneva, told public radio.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yossi Levy described the UN meeting as a “tragic farce.”
“Officially it is aimed at denouncing racism, but it has invited a Holocaust denier who has called for the destruction of Israel,” Levy said.
Ahmadinejad’s attendance has sparked fears that the five-day meeting could end in acrimony, as did the previous event held eight years ago in Durban.
The Iranian president, who is so far the only prominent head of state due to attend the Durban Review Conference, has stirred outrage by repeatedly calling the Holocaust a “myth” and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Negotiators in Geneva said on Friday that Western and most Muslim states had agreed on a declaration that ironed out the most controversial issues relating to religious discrimination, Israel and the Middle East.
But on Saturday, Israel’s staunch ally the US said it would not join the conference because its final declaration still included language Washington was “unable to support.”
The US, along with Israel, walked out of the World Conference on Racism in Durban in 2001 after a row with some Muslim states about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and anti-Semitism.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS