 On Wednesday, Israel rejected accusations by a U.N. panel claiming that it is involved in the illegal export and sale of ‘blood diamonds’ from the Ivory Coast. Shmuel Mordechai, Israel’s Diamond Controller, said he was shocked by the “false accusations” printed in a report to the U.N. Security Council on international compliance with U.N. sanctions imposed on the Ivory Coast. The panel also named the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Guinea and Liberia as some of the countries that needed to increase efforts to enforce a four-year-old U.N. embargo on buying rough diamonds mined in the Ivory Coast. “Israel has never dealt in diamond trade with the Ivory Coast,” Mordechai said in a statement. “We are shocked by these false accusations and completely refute them.” Today the Security Council is expected to renew embargoes on arms and rough diamond sales and other sanctions on the Ivory Coast for another year.
The Ivory Coast report urges Israel to “investigate fully the possible involvement of Israeli nationals and companies in the illegal export of Ivorian rough diamonds.” Mordechai argued that the U.N. experts visited Israel twice recently and were provided with “unequivocal proof” that it had no dealings with the Ivory Coast or any other countries that are not members of the Kimberley Process. The Kimberley Process was designed to eliminate the trade in “blood diamonds.” Before its implementation, conflict stones made up about 15 percent of the world market. Israel said it would lodge an official complaint about its inclusion in the U.N. report at a meeting of Kimberley Process members in Namibia next months.
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