Wikileaks: Ban Ki-Moon Secretly Worked With Israel to Undermine UN Report on Gaza

By Daily Bhaskar

11 August 14

n a startling revelation, it has come to light that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked the "members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) not to take into account the report submitted by the UN Board of Inquiry that accused Israel of targeting UN buildings in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009".

Quoting some documents released by WikiLeaks on Friday, TeleSUR English reported, "Ban Ki-moon secretly worked with Israel to undermine UN report into Gaza war crimes."

"Ban wrote a letter to the UN Security Council asking its members not to take recommendations by the UN Board of Inquiry about Israeli bombings in Gaza into account," the report alleged.

In its report, the UN Board of Inquiry had concluded that "Israeli Defense Force (IDF) targeted UN buildings in Gaza Strip in seven of the nine attacks. The report also accused Israel of having "breached the inviolability and immunity of UN premises". Ithad recommended an impartial probe into the bombings at UN facilities.

According to WikiLeaks, White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice spoke four times with Ban Ki Moon "to discuss concerns over the Board of Inquiry's report on incidents at UN sites in December 2008 and January 2009".

"Rice urged Ban not to include the recommendations in the final report's summary, which was supposed to be transmitted to the UN Security Council on May 5," says WikiLeaks.

But the Secretary-General replied he was unable to alter the report and recommendations of the Board of Inquiry as it was independent.

Rice, in the second conversation, "urged the Secretary-General to make clear in his cover letter when he transmits the summary to the Security Council that those recommendations exceeded the scope of the terms of reference and no further action is needed". Ban told her that his "staff were working with an Israeli delegation on the text of the cover letter".

Secretary-General Ban called Rice after the letter had been finalized to "report that he believed they had arrived at a satisfactory cover letter". "Rice thanked the Secretary-General for his exceptional efforts on such a sensitive issue," revealed WikiLeaks.