January 18, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 17, 1426

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17: US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton has sent a sharply worded letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, threatening to cut US funding to the UN if the world body continues to promote anti-Israel events.

The spokesman to the Secretary General Stephane Dujarric acknowledged on Tuesday that such a letter was received by the United Nations and that Mr Annan’s office is in the process of responding to it. He did not give any details of the letter.

Mr Boston’s Jan 3 letter came in response to an event at the UN celebrating the annual ‘International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’.

At the event, which was attended by Mr Annan and other top diplomats, speakers stood before a map of the Middle East that did not show the state of Israel.

“Given that we now have a world leader pursuing nuclear weapons who is calling for the state of Israel to be wiped off the map, the issue has even greater salience,” Mr Bolton wrote, referring to Iranian President Mamoud Ahmadinejad’s statement to that effect in October.

Mr Bolton wrote in his letter: “Who is the high-level official within the secretariat who approved use of the map for the event? Does the United Nations intend to use the map in future UN-sponsored functions and events?

“In light of prohibition under US law to fund events such as this one, do you consider it appropriate for the United Nations to advertise and promote the event on its general website and other venues, which do in fact benefit from US funds?”

The Palestinian observer at the United Nations, Riad Mansour, said a pre-1948 date is clearly marked on the map. He added that in 1981, the ‘committee for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people’ decided that the map and the flag of ‘Palestine as it existed in 1948’ should be displayed in the room where the event was held.