Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is expected to decide Wednesday, when he returns from Spain, whether to take steps against UN Middle East envoy Terje Larsen for comments he made slamming the Israeli operation in Jenin refugee camp.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker has presented Peres with four options regarding Larsen: calling him in for a reprimand, writing a letter of censure to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, declaring him persona non grata, or taking no action at all.
For his part, Peres made it clear on Sunday, following harsh criticism of Larsen in the cabinet meeting, that he does not think the UN envoy should be expelled from the country.
Following Peres' support of Larsen, and in an obvious move to get back at the Norwegian delegate the right-wing weekly Makor Rishon said it would publish in its upcoming issue an investigative report exposing that in 1999 the Peres Center for Peace presented Larsen and his wife Mona Juul, the Norwegian ambassador to Israel, with a gift of $100,000 in cash.
According to the report, authored by David Bedein, in 1999 the Peres Center, in an unprecedented move, gave Larsen and Juul checks for $50,000 each. Center director Ron Pundak, who together with Peres and Larsen was one of the architects of the Oslo process, confirmed the Makor Rishon report.
Meanwhile, Larsen said he stood by his comments on the Jenin refugee camp, during a visit to Beirut Monday. "What I did - on the basis of what I saw, what I heard, what I smelled - was to say that this was shocking and horrifying, and I think that any decent human being with a heart would have reacted the same way I did and used similar words," Larsen said after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
So far, the UN has no plans to replace Larsen, according to UN sources. They said the attacks on Larsen originated in the Prime Minister's Office, and were meant to undermine the work of the UN fact-finding commission before it starts. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
