Israel withdraws from Security Council election
United Nations, May 5: Israel has withdrawn from the election for a two-year term on the Security Council that pitted it against Germany and Belgium.
Israel's UN Mission announced the decision shortly before a debate between the three candidates was due to start at the UN on Friday afternoon.
"After consulting with our partners, including our good friends, the State of Israel has decided to postpone its candidacy for a seat on the Security Council," the mission said.
The non-permanent seats in the Council are distributed regionally and Israel, which is in the Western European and Other Group (WEOG), had planned to contest one of the group's two seats for the 2019-2020 term.
The failure to run unopposed for the WEOG seat is a diplomatic setback for Israel, which has never had a seat the Council, and, according to the US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, a broken promise by West European countries.
He asserted in a tweet in March that Washington, which had brokered a deal for Israel to run unopposed for one of the WEOG seats, must ensure that the European nations kept their word.
Grenell said that the late Richard Holbrooke, a former assistant secretary of state, had arranged the deal..
Although Middle Eastern nations are in the Asia-Pacific Group, Israel has faced opposition from some members of the group and was taken in by the WEOG.
Israel has never held a Council seat and would have been difficult for Israel to win against those to European nations, but it would have won by default if it was unopposed in the group.
There is one vacancy for the Asia-Pacific Group for 2019-2020 term and Indonesia and Maldives are contesting it.
They will participate in a candidates' debate for the region organised by the World Federation of United Nations Associations on May 14.
All the 193 members of the UN will, however, vote for the non-permanent members of the Council, even though the seats are distributed by region.
The elections are scheduled for June 8.
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At least 11 killed, dozens injured in Israeli strikes in Beirut as diplomats push for cease-fire
Beirut (Lebanon), Nov 23: Israeli airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 11 people and injured dozens in central Beirut, officials said, as diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency responders dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, it said, adding that 63 people were wounded. The strikes were the fourth in the Lebanese capital in less than a week.
The escalation comes after US envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to the region this week in an attempt to broker a cease-fire deal to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has erupted into full-on war in the past two months.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon's population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in fighting in Lebanon.
Israel's war with Hamas also shows no signs of abating. Gaza's health ministry said at least 80 people were killed between Thursday and Friday in multiple strikes in the enclave's north, including the Kamal Adwan and Al-Ahli hospitals. Dozens of people are still trapped under the rubble, it said.
