Situation in Gaza – Cuban Foreign Ministry statement – Letter from Cuba

    Letter dated 24 January 2008 from the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

  I have the honour to transmit herewith a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, dated 23 January 2008, regarding the recent escalation of aggression by Israel against the Palestinian population, particularly in the Gaza Strip (see annex).

  I should be grateful if you would circulate the present letter and its annex as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda items 17 and 18, and of the Security Council.

(Signed ) Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz

Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations

    Annex to the letter dated 24 January 2008 from the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

   Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba has followed with great concern the recent escalation of aggression against the Palestinian population by the Government of Israel, which has led to dozens of deaths and injuries.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs finds the encirclement of the Gaza Strip and the cutting off of electricity and food supplies to a million and a half Palestinian civilians unacceptable and criminal as well as a flagrant breach of international law and of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba vigorously condemns these acts by the Government of Israel, which are designed to annihilate and subjugate through starvation and thirst, the Palestinian people, including children, women, the sick and the elderly, who are suffering from the forced and illegal occupation of their territory and are now being subjected to further inhuman collective punishment by the occupying forces.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba demands that the Government of Israel should immediately lift the inhumane blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. It also calls upon the international community to mobilize for the purpose of demanding respect for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of an independent and sovereign State with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the unconditional return of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, as the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace for all the peoples in the region.

Havana

23 January 2008

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