Erdan excluded from UN session on Ukraine

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/323143

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid decided on Tuesday that Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, would not speak at the emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Erdan’s deputy, Noa Furman, spoke in his place.

According to a report on Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio), due to the sensitive relations with the Russians, Lapid decided to downgrade the level of the Israeli speaker in the discussion so that the Israeli support for a condemnation of Russia would not be interpreted in Moscow as a far-reaching step that the Russians would have to respond to.

A political official claimed that alongside the diplomatic reasoning, Lapid - who has had several run ins with Erdan - wanted the speaker on behalf of Israel to stick to wording written by officials in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and Furman, who is a diplomat on behalf of the ministry, would do so.

According to the source, there was concern that Ambassador Erdan would add to the speech things that were not agreed upon with the professional echelon and would damage relations with Russia.