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Viewing cable 07USUNNEWYORK73, UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS U.S. RESOLUTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07USUNNEWYORK73 2007-01-29 22:22 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY USUN New York
VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #0073/01 0292222
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 292222Z JAN 07
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1227
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0781
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 0728
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1371
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2488
UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000073 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL UNGA IS IR
SUBJECT: UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS U.S. RESOLUTION 
CONDEMNING HOLOCAUST DENIAL, ISOLATING IRAN 
 
 
1.  (U)  Summary.  On January 26, the day before the 
sixty-second anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the 
UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a U.S.-sponsored 
resolution that condemned without reservation any denial of 
the Holocaust.  The resolution garnered the support of 103 UN 
co-sponsors, including four Islamic countries - Albania, 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia and Turkey.  Iran 
disassociated itself from the consensus, labeling the plenary 
proceedings a "hypocritical exercise" and condemning Israel's 
so-called "exploitation" of its historic suffering.  However, 
Iran was wholly isolated.  Egypt's Permrep delivered a 
remarkably conciliatory statement, declaring that, "...the 
Holocaust should be remembered as one of the dark points in 
the history of humanity" and urging the GA to revitalize a 
culture of peace, tolerance and co-existence.  Introducing 
the resolution at the podium, U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff 
said, "Those who would deny the Holocaust ... reveal not only 
their ignorance but their moral failure as well."  Following 
adoption of the resolution, SYG Ban Ki-Moon issued a 
statement expressing his "strong support to see this 
fundamental principle respected both in rhetoric and in 
practice."  End Summary. 
 
------------------------------------- 
U.S. RALLIES SUPPORT FOR GA CONSENSUS 
------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (U) Following an intense and coordinated two-week 
outreach initiative in the media and among UN delegations, 
the U.S. garnered 103 co-sponsors (plus three hopefuls who 
arrived too late) to support a concise resolution that 
"condemns without any reservation any denial of the 
Holocaust."  Israel, the EU and Australia also advocated 
actively.  The delegations of Barbados, Burundi and Tanzania 
told USUN that they had intended to join co-sponsorship, but 
reportedly misunderstood procedures (Burundi) or arrived too 
late at the morning session to sign the Secretariat's 
register.  Only Iran disassociated its delegation from the 
decision.  No other country publicly dissented.  On January 
26, the General Assembly adopted the resolution by consensus. 
 Absent from the General Assembly were 21 delegations, 
including 11 countries that also declined to co-sponsor the 
resolution, including South Africa, Sudan, Somalia, 
Swaziland, Belize, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, 
Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tajikistan. 
 
3.  (U)  Overall, however, language of the resolution 
(A/61/53) was lean enough to drive a principled consensus, 
while also conveying a strong rebuke toward any attempts to 
deny the history of the Holocaust.  The resolution reaffirms 
an Israeli sponsored resolution of November 2005 (A/60/7), 
which designates January 27 as a UN International Day of 
Commemoration in memory of Holocaust victims.  The text notes 
that everyone has a vital stake in a world free of genocide 
and encourages nations to include in their educational 
programs measures to confront attempts to deny or minimize 
the importance of such terrible, historic events.  Although 
Iran and its recent Holocaust denial conference were not 
explicitly referenced in the text, implications of the 
resolution resonated resoundingly at UN headquarters and in 
the press. 
 
4.  (U)  Mounting the GA dais to introduce the resolution, 
U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff described the Holocaust as 
"one of the most tragic moral catastrophes in the history of 
mankind," which we must remember so it does not happen again. 
 In a clear though unnamed reference to Iran, Ambassador 
Wolff added, "Those who would deny the Holocaust--and, sadly, 
there are some who do--reveal not only their ignorance but 
their moral failure as well."  By adopting this resolution, 
Ambassador Wolff declared that the General Assembly would 
place its moral authority and its political will squarely 
behind the first words of the UN Charter, "to save succeeding 
generations." (Note:  The full text of U.S. introductory and 
national statements are posted on USUN website 
www.un.int/usa/.) 
 
5.  (U)  Prior to adoption of the resolution, Iran responded 
immediately to the U.S. introduction.  However, Iran 
refrained from calling for a vote.  Instead, an Iranian 
delegate read an explanation of position in which Iran "fully 
dissociated" from what it characterized as a "hypocritical 
exercise." Iran charged indignantly that the resolution 
masked "a mischievous intention" on the part of its main 
sponsors to pursue "narrow political interests."  To justify 
its recent Holocaust denial conference, Iran argued that 
rigorous research, objectivity and scrutiny were required to 
"address historical events of horrific enormity," without any 
arbitrary restrictions, in order to prevent a recurrence. 
Iran cited other genocidal events as implicitly analogous in 
terms of "enormous suffering and pain to mankind," including 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Palestine, Rwanda and the Balkans. 
The Iranian statement accused Israel of "routinely attempting 
to exploit the sufferings of the Jewish people in the past as 
a cover for the crimes it has perpetrated over the past six 
decades against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, 
including massacre, targeted assassination, ethnic cleansing 
and state terrorism." 
 
------------------------------------- 
CHORUS OF SOLIDARITY FOLLOWS ADOPTION 
------------------------------------- 
 
6.  (U)  After the President of the General (PGA) gaveled to 
consensus the decision to adopt the resolution, at least 
eight delegations requested the floor to deliver 
overwhelmingly strong and supportive explanations of position 
and national statements.  PGA Haya Rashed Al Khalifa 
(Bahrain) said, "By its action today, the Assembly has 
reaffirmed its condemnation of the Holocaust as a crime 
against humanity, and issued a strong reminder that the 
international community was united in opposing all crimes 
against humanity."  Quoting Edmund Burke, she added:  "All 
that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do 
nothing."  Later in the day, SYG Ban Ki-Moon issued a short 
statement that said the resolution reflected the prevailing 
view of the international community.  His statement adds that 
the denial of historical facts such as the Holocaust are 
unacceptable, and expresses the Secretary-General's "strong 
desire to see this fundamental principle respected both in 
rhetoric and in practice." 
 
7.  (U)  Of particular note among Members' statements, were 
some unusually conciliatory remarks from traditional 
adversaries, as well as emotive expressions of regret and 
shame that were movingly delivered, and at least one haunting 
premonition (from Israel.)  Highlights follow: 
 
Egypt:  Ambassador Abdelaziz stressed his "strong belief that 
the Holocaust should be remembered as one of the dark points 
in the history of humanity."  He thanked the co-sponsors, 
particularly the European countries, for keeping that memory 
alive and for working to correct those mistakes.  He asserted 
that the painful memories of the Holocaust should serve as a 
repugnant reminder of the need to combat racism, intolerance 
and xenophobia in all its forms, including Islamophobia, "and 
serve as a lesson that appeasing intolerant ideologies would 
cost humanity dearly." 
 
Germany:  Ambassador Matussek acknowledged that the 
unprecedented crime of the Holocaust had been committed by 
Germans in the name of their country, and that Germany bore a 
very special responsibility stemming from that.  On behalf of 
the EU, he said a prerequisite for combating racism or 
intolerance of any kind was a readiness to face the truth and 
not to distort historical facts.  "Such distortions are a 
shameful failure of the common responsibility to ensure a 
world free from such atrocities," he concluded. 
 
Russia:  Recalling that, "the memory of the monstrous crimes 
of Naziism is still alive today," Ambassador Churkin asserted 
that no one had the right to forget the tragedy. "It must be 
remembered in order to avoid its possible repetition," he 
said.  Churkin particularly "honored as sacred" the memory of 
the six million and Jews and Europeans, half of whom had been 
citizens of the former Soviet Union.  (Russia co-sponsored 
the resolution.) 
 
Venezuela:  While acknowledging that millions of human beings 
had been Holocaust victims, the Venezuelan delegation 
regretted that "hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are being 
victimized by actions carried out in the name of democracy by 
the United States."   Venezuela regretted that the resolution 
had not been broader in scope, asserting that it should have 
also covered the deaths of those killed in Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki, as well as the Palestinian people. 
 
Israel:  In a direct and stinging rebuke of Iran, Ambassador 
Gillerman declared:  "While the nations of the world gather 
here to affirm the Holocaust with the intent of never again 
allowing genocide, a Member of this Assembly is developing 
the capabilities to carry out its own.  The President of Iran 
is in fact saying, 'There really was no Holocaust, but just 
in case, we shall finish the job.'"  The Israeli PR employed 
a 1936 quotation from Winston Churchill to deliver a warning, 
describing Churchill's words as more poignant than ever.  He 
quoted Churchill as saying:  "The era of procrastination, of 
half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays 
have come to a close.  In its place, we are entering a period 
of consequences." 
 
U.S.:  In a closing statement, Ambassador Wolff described a 
confluence of forces that were gathering ominously in Iran, 
including the regime's questioning of the Holocaust, 
President Ahmadi-Nejad's call for Israel to be "wiped off the 
map," and Iran's development of nuclear weapons.  He 
described those forces as creating "a cauldron of conflict" 
that must not be ignored.  He epitomized the significance of 
achieving international consensus on the resolution by 
concluding:  "To deny the events of the Holocaust is 
tantamount to the approval of genocide in all its forms. 
Today we stand together saying to the world that we will not 
allow that to happen." 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
8.  (SBU)  Comment:  Such a strong demonstration of 
solidarity in support of a U.S. sponsored resolution provided 
a rare moment of moral and political uplift in the UN General 
Assembly.  Iran received an unequivocal message.  Egypt's 
statement represented a well crafted breakthrough in terms of 
empathy toward Holocaust victims and a willingness to stake 
out a moral high ground on universal tolerance.  In mounting 
a campaign for this initiative, USUN reached out proactively 
to create a buzz in the press, which may have helped shame 
potential opponents and avert a vote, which would have been 
construed as a setback.  In the end, most UN officials 
recognized that the General Assembly itself was a victor as 
it served as a sounding board and international platform for 
universal values and high moral purpose. 
 
 
WOLFF