JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he hoped to stave off any possible moves at the U.N. Security Council against his government’s policies following a Paris conference scheduled for later this month on Middle East peace.
The Security Council on Dec. 23 adopted a resolution that demands an end to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, despite heavy Israeli pressure against it.
France plans to convene some 70 countries on Jan. 15 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a conference Netanyahu has rejected in advance as “futile”.
“There are signs that they will try to turn decisions made there into another decision in the Security Council,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Israeli ambassadors in Jerusalem.
“Therefore our primary effort for now is to prevent another U.N. decision, another decision by the Security Council. And also to prevent a decision by the Quartet,” he said, referring to the group of peace mediators that comprises the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.
“We are investing a great diplomatic effort in this,” he said in broadcast remarks, without providing any details.
Netanyahu has said Israel will re-assess its ties with the United Nations following last month’s resolution.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Gareth Jones)
