OMAN REACTION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL DEMARCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MUSCAT 000999

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA, NEA/ARP, IO/UNP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/20/2021
TAGS: PREL PHUM MU
SUBJECT: OMAN REACTION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL DEMARCHE

REF: SECSTATE 99490

Classified By: Ambassador Gary A. Grappo. Reason: 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) In a June 20 call on Minister Responsible for Foreign
Affairs Yusuf bin Alawi, the Ambassador raised reftel points,
urging that the inaugural session of the new UN Human Rights
Council not get bogged down in divisive debate over
particular countries when more basic decisions about the new
body's method of operation needed to be addressed. The
Minister replied that the recent deaths of innocent
Palestinian families on a Gaza beach was a highly emotive
topic, and that it is only natural that states will take an
opportunity to express their views. Israel, he said, could
have defused the topic earlier simply by admitting its
mistake. He added pessimistically that, by whatever name it
goes, the UN Human Rights Council (or any future iterations
of it) will function more or less the same as the defunct UN
Human Rights Commission.


2. (C) The Minister's political adviser, Mohammed al-Hassan
(a veteran of Oman's mission to the UN),added that he had
been informed that Israel has not thus far been a major point
of discussion at the new Council's inaugural session, nor was
it likely to be. He was surprised the USG had deemed the
possibility sufficiently likely to demarche on the topic.
GRAPPO