LITHUANIA EXPECTS TO ABSTAIN ON RESOLUTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L VILNIUS 000580 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR IO/HR (KRUCHOWSKI),IO/UNP (MORRISON), NEA/IPA (GIAUQUE) USUN NEW YORK (GERMAIN) E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2019 TAGS: KPAL PREL PHUM PTER LH SUBJECT: LITHUANIA EXPECTS TO ABSTAIN ON RESOLUTION STEMMING FROM GOLDSTONE REPORT REF: SECSTATE 112828 Classified By: Acting Deputy Chief of Mission John M. Finkbeiner for re asons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) We delivered reftel points November 3 to Rita Kazragiene, head of the MFA's UN and Global Policy Division. She said she had received a copy of a draft resolution expected to be introduced in the UN General Assembly as part of the discussion on the Goldstone Report. That draft was received overnight by the Lithuanians from the Swedish Presidency of the EU after the Swedes received it November 2 from the Palestinian Authority, Kazragiene told us. The two points in the draft resolution of most concern to Lithuania were a call to endorse the report and resolution of the Human Rights Council concerning the Goldstone Report, and a request to the Secretary General to have the Security Council take up the matter. If those two points remained in the resolution, she said, Lithuania would abstain. She said Lithuania would consider voting no only after conferring with other EU states and allies such as the United States. ¶2. (C) Kazragiene said the draft resolution she had seen did include a request to seek convocation of the parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, but that it did not make any reference to white phosphorous or other munitions. Instead, she said, the aim was to put measures in place to enforce the Convention in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem. The draft resolution also called for the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take all appropriate steps within three months to investigate the events of last winter. Kazragiene said that Lithuania would be hesitant to view that time limit as a trigger for a "no" vote, but agreed that it might not provide enough time for adequate and credible investigations. DERSE