Lieberman appeals to Ban on Goldstone

JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says he has asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to quash the Goldstone Report.

Lieberman talked to Ban in a telephone conversation Thursday and asked him to keep the damning report on alleged Israeli and Hamas war crimes in Gaza from advancing to further United Nations votes, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

The U.N. Human Rights Council endorsed the report last week despite opposition from Israel and its allies.

A statement issued by Lieberman's office says the foreign minister contended to Ban that it's unfair that Palestinians be allowed to hold local negotiations with Israel while fighting against it at the international level.

"A distorted international reality has been created in which at any international forum there is an automatic majority of states which are very far from being concerned about issues of human rights," he said, citing votes to support the Goldstone report by Cuba, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. "One must think about how to correct this situation in order for there to be a credible and balanced international system."