Brussels, 02/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference on Monday 31 May, after the attack on the “Turkish-led flotilla”, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that this “armada of hate and violence was a premeditated and outrageous provocation”. He said the organisers were well-known for their ties to global Jihad, Al Qaeda and Hamas, and that they shared a past of arms smuggling and murderous terrorism. He said that on the ship, “we found arms made ready for use against our troops. Their (the organisers') intent was violent, their methods were violent and their results unfortunately were violent. Israel regrets the loss of life and did everything it could to avoid this outcome”.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused the international community of being “two-faced”, after the United Nations Security Council, on Monday evening, condemned “acts” which led to the deaths of civilians during an Israeli navy operation against the flotilla headed for Gaza. According to information from New York, the Security Council, after more than ten hours of negotiations behind closed doors, adopted a formal statement calling for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation” into the incident. Lieberman said that “the international community has remained silent about the severe incidents” in Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and India, which in the last month alone had claimed 500 victims, “yet was condemning Israel for its military acts of defence”. (F.B./transl.rt)