Council Condemns Tel Aviv Bombing Without Pointing to Perpetrators

UNITED NATIONS – The Security Council yesterday condemned Friday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv but failed to point to a Damascus-based terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as the perpetrator was indicated in a communication intercepted by Israeli intelligence.The acting American ambassador to the U.N., Anne Patterson, asked the council to include condemnation for Islamic Jihad in the announcement, but Algerian Ambassador Abdallah Baali argued that there was not enough evidence to implicate the group, blocking the necessary consensus. Ms. Patterson said that the issue may be revisited later this week.Even as is, the statement is unprecedented, Mr. Baali, the only Arab representative on the 15-member council, told The New York Sun. “This is the first condemnation of a suicide bombing” in Israel, he said. While past council resolutions and statements contained references to terrorist attacks against Israelis, they were balanced out by condemnation of Israel.Yesterday in Israel, intelligence officials briefed ambassadors from states represented at the council, presenting evidence that links Islamic Jihad and Syria to the suicide bombing that killed five Israelis and broke a sense of calm after a lull in successful terrorist attacks.A Jerusalem source who asked not to be identified told the Sun that the evidence was based on intercepted communications, known as signal intelligence, or “sig-int.” Israeli diplomats, who rarely go to the council and the U.N., hoped to capitalize on a new international atmosphere favoring democracies and opposing terrorism, he added.“If we see further evidence we will have no problem” to directly implicate Islamic Jihad and Syria, French Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere told the Sun last night.Several council members, however, noted last year’s wrongful condemnation of the Basque group ETA after a bombing in Madrid, saying that the experience might help those in the council that want to avoid direct mentioning of terror perpetrators.Yesterday’s council statement only hinted at Syria’s involvement, calling on all states “to refrain from providing any active or passive support” to terrorism.It also called on “Palestinian leaders” to take “immediate, credible steps” to arrest and try the perpetrators and take “further and sustained action” to prevent further terror attacks.The resolution came on the eve of today’s London meeting of the “quartet,” a steering group charged with implementing the Road Map, an international plan for creating a peaceful, democratic state for Palestinian Arabs next to Israel.The London conference, intended to strengthen the Palestinian Authority headed by the newly-elected Mahmoud Abbas, will be attended by foreign ministers from Russia and the European Union, Secretary of State Rice, and Secretary-General Annan. Israel will not be represented.Mr. Annan yesterday said to a visiting left-wing Israeli legislator, Yossi Beilin, that he hoped the London summit would reinvigorate the quartet, now that all the three principal foreign ministers were replaced in recent months, Mr. Beilin told the Sun. Additionally, Mr. Annan said he was weighing favorably a mid-March visit to Israel, where he is invited for a March 15 opening of a new Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and at which time he is also expected to visit Mr. Abbas.

Council Condemns Tel Aviv Bombing Without Pointing to Perpetrators

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