Israel wants US to deflect outcry

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Israel can probably live with the diplomatic cost of its bloody storming of Turkish-backed aid ships bound for Gaza — unless its US ally fails to shield it.
Israel’s high-seas interception of the flotilla, in which nine people were killed, has provoked a firestorm of criticism around the world and shredded the Jewish state’s already tattered relationship with Turkey, once its only Muslim ally.
Demands will intensify for Israel to end its siege of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians, decried as “inhumane” by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday. The European Union and Russia urged Israel to open crossings for aid, goods and people.
Another casualty, at least for now, is US President Barack Obama’s effort to get indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks moving. Monday’s drama will further test the credibility of Obama’s broad drive to regain the trust of Arabs and Muslims.
So far Obama has only voiced regret at the casualties and called for clarification of what happened in the raid.
The UN Security Council condemned the “acts” that led to casualties and urged an investigation “conforming to international standards”.
Israel has weathered world outrage over its policies towards Palestinians and its Arab neighbours often in the past, largely because it could rely on Washington to veto hostile resolutions at the UN Security Council and protect it from any punishment.
“Despite the protests against us, we’ve been through more difficult situations,” Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel’s Army Radio, dismissing talk of sanctions.

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Syria conducted nuke experiments: IAEA
Vienna, June 1: Syria has told the UN atomic watchdog about past nuclear experiments, but is still refusing to cooperate over allegations that it was building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea’s help, a new report revealed on Tuesday.
In a four-page report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Syria “provided the agency with information concerning previously unreported uranium conversion and irradiation activities” at a small research reactor in Damascus. Syria insists the scale of the experiment was small.
A senior diplomat said it was too early to determine whether the experiments were purely of a small scientific nature, as Syria claimed, or part of wider, more extensive research.
—AFP