SYDNEY – A Jewish legislator in Australia has cast doubt on a newspaper report suggesting the country’s foreign minister recommended abstaining at the United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood.
Michael Danby, a Labor government backbencher, said Monday that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had told him “explicitly” at a meeting in May that Australia would “vote against any unilateral announcements at the UN.”Danby’s comments came on the heels of a report Monday in Melbourne’s “The Age” newspaper, claiming that Rudd had written to Prime Minister Julia Gillard recommending Australia vote neither for nor against a resolution in New York next month to recognize a Palestinian state.
