Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Ramadan
Fatwa Audios
Month of Mercy
Women
Eed Al- Fitr
Food Recipes
Videos
The UN Security Council is looking into Libya's request for an emergency session to discuss the Goldstone report that accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza, diplomats say.
Libya on Tuesday circulated a letter on behalf of the UN Arab group urgently seeking "an emergency meeting" of the 15-member body to consider the report, Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador, told the AFP news agency.
Arab diplomats said the Security Council was to hold consultations on Wednesday to decide whether or not to hold a formal meeting on the Goldstone report.
The UN Human Rights Council was set to vote last Friday on a resolution that would have condemned Israel's failure to cooperate with its investigation into the December-January war.
Ahmed Gebreel, a Libyan spokesman, said his country which currently has a Security Council seat, had requested the meeting "because of the seriousness of the report and because we think it's too long to wait until March".
Hamas warning
Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman, warning on Wednesday that the controversy surrounding the report could affect the Palestinian reconciliation deal which Egypt has said will be signed later this month.
"All the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are angry at the [Palestinian] Authority after what happened with the Goldstone report and this could affect the arrangements for the [reconciliation] dialogue," he told AFP.
"According to Egyptian arrangements up to now, the delegations are due to go to Cairo ... and Egypt is to fix the date of the signing of the deal."
The Libyan bid came on the same day as reports appeared about a videotape reportedly showing Palestinian Authority representatives at a meeting in the US initially rejecting Israel's request not to endorse the report.
The tape also reportedly showed Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, later trying to convince Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, to continue the offensive in Gaza, according to Shahab, a Palestinian news agency.
Abbas support
Palestinians, including Abbas's party Fatah, have issued a scathing criticism, saying he was responsible for the decision to postpone the vote on the Goldstone report.
But following Libya's request, the Palestinian observer mission at the UN expressed "full support" for the move.
"We are welcoming Libya's step that they have asked the Security Council to meet [on Wednesday] to discuss the Goldstone report," Abbas told AFP in a telephone conversation from Rome.
"Libya's step is supporting the Palestinian people's rights."
Palestine TV, the official television channel of the PA, reported that Abbas would send Riyadh al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, to New York to assist in the Libyan bid to have the council address the report.
Recorded phone call
Shahab also reported that Avraham played an audiotape of a telephone call between Dov Weissglas, the director of the Israel's chief of staff bureau, and al-Tayyib Abdul Rahim, secretary-general of the Palestinian presidency.
In the conversation, Abdul Rahim says that circumstances were suitable for entry of the Israeli army into Jabalya and al-Shatea refugee camps, and adds that the fall of these two camps would end Hamas's rule in Gaza Strip, Shahab says.
Weissglas then told Abdul Rahim that this operation would lead to the death of thousands of civilians, but, according to Shahab, Abdul Rahim said: "They have all elected Hamas, so they are the ones who have chosen their fate, not us."
Shehab said the Israeli delegation threatened the PA representatives that it would present the recorded material to the UN and news organizations, forcing the delegation to accede to Israel's demand to delay the vote on the report.
Earlier, a senior Qatari foreign ministry official said the Palestinians missed a rare chance by delaying the vote on the Goldstone report.
Sheikh Khaled bin Jassem al-Thani, the ministry's human rights department head, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the Palestinian representative to the UN Human Rights Council had requested a delay until the next meeting in March.
"The Palestinian decision was based on their wishes ... and member states could not take unilateral measures contrary to the wishes of the Palestinian Authority," he said.
"There were many countries that supported [the report and a vote] ... it could have been adopted, but I think that an opportunity was missed and it may not come back."
Abbas is under pressure from the PA's executive council and the central committee of Fatah has launched an investigation into the delay.
PHOTO CAPTION
Palestinian civilians flee during an Israeli strike on the Gaza town of Beit Lahia in January 2009.
Al-Jazeera
Prayer Times
Prayer times for Doha, Qatar 
