NEW DELHI, 03 June 2021, (TON): Days after India abstained at the UN Human Rights Council on a resolution proposing to set up a Commission of Inquiry into violations related to the latest round of violence in Gaza.

Riyad al-Maliki has written in a sharply worded letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “India missed an opportunity to join the international community at this turning point, both crucial and long overdue, on the path to accountability, justice and peace”.

India was among 14 countries that abstained on the proposal for an inquiry into the alleged human rights violations around the Israeli action in Gaza, and the systematic abuses in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel.

He said “The resolution is not an aberration to the Human Rights Council. It is the byproduct of extensive multilateral consultations. It is the consolidation of years and thorough investigations into and reporting on Israel’s grave violations by States, United Nations experts, Human Rights treaty bodies and international organizations, without effective accountability measures”.