Ban to Lieberman: Form a committee to stop the “Goldstone” report

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, declared during a conversation with the "Israeli" Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, that "If ‘Israel' wants the United Nations bodies to discontinue the investigation based on the fact finding mission's report on the Gaza war, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, ‘Israel' has to form a committee to audit the charges laid in the report."

The newspaper "Haaretz", today said that Lieberman "Did not comment on Ban's statement, but started leaning towards considering the formation of an ‘Israeli' audit committee to investigate events of the war on Gaza in a positive light."

The newspaper said that "Lieberman is the one who telephoned the UN Secretary-General last Thursday night. After that, Lieberman's office published details that he had told the international official, his objection to the Goldstone report and his demand not to have the report transferred to the UN Security Council. Ban's response was not published."

The newspaper also said that "The latter indicated that he cannot interfere in any way with UN bodies from continuing their research and study of the Goldstone report, adding that that was up to members of the General Assembly and Security Council."

According to the newspaper, Ban stressed to Lieberman that "He felt that there was a better solution to prevent the continuation of research into the report, by forming an independent auditing committee in ‘Israel' to investigate the allegations contained in the Goldstone report", pointing out that "Such an audit is in ‘Israel's' interest."

"Haaretz" reported "Israeli" political sources as saying that "Lieberman gradually began to be convinced that forming an audit committee may be an appropriate solution to curb the demands by many countries to have the report brought before the Security Council, or the International Criminal Court in The Hague."

The "Israeli" Foreign Ministry has not crystallized a final opinion on the matter yet, but two high-level officials said, against a backdrop of hints by the U.S. Administration and the European Union, that ‘Israel' is obliged to positively look into the possibility of the formation of an audit committee.