Russia's Goldstone vote angers Israel

JERUSALEM, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Russia's vote to adopt a U.N. report accusing Israel of war crimes endangers its hopes of hosting a Middle East conference, an Israeli official says.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Sunday Russia's move to join India and China at the U.N. Human Rights Council to adopt the Goldstone Commission report puts in jeopardy Moscow's long-sought goal of staging a peace summit, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The Russian vote, Ayalon reportedly said, "does not help promote (a conference)," which Moscow has been trying to organize for two years as a follow-up to the November 2007 Annapolis, Md., conference.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman took the Russian vote at the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva as a personal rebuke, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Monday.

Unnamed senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem told the newspaper he had been assured by Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that Moscow would not support adoption of the Goldstone report.

Israel Radio reported, however, that Russia will oppose sending the report to the U.N. Security Council, which theoretically could foward it to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.