UNITED NATIONS - The UN General Assembly is to discuss in early November the Goldstone report that accuses Israel and Palestinians of war crimes in Gaza, an Arab diplomat said Monday.
"The Arab group is requesting that the report... be debated in the General Assembly in early November," said Arab League representative Yahya Mahmassani, who was conveying the request in a letter to Assembly president Ali Triki.
Discussions would definitely now go ahead "probably on November 4," Mahmassani said.
He said the Arab League's intention was to propose the General Assembly pass a resolution approving the Goldstone report and "requesting the (UN) Security Council to take it" up in formal debate.
The UN Human Rights Council earlier this month endorsed Richard Goldstone's report, on the 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza that erupted on December 27, 2008.
When the fighting ended, 1,400 Palestinians (mainly civilians and a third of them children) and 13 Israelis (mainly soldiers) had been killed.
Goldstone concluded that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
He recommended that the findings be referred to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.
Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set up a team to outline Israel's response to the Goldstone report, which has placed it under massive diplomatic pressure.
Netanyahu has ruled out setting up new inquiry committees to examine the army's conduct during the military offensive, one Israeli official said.
Extremist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday urged UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon not to send the Goldstone report to the Security Council or the General Assembly.
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