The top foreign policy official of the United Nations on Monday asked Israel to end its "counterproductive" and "unacceptable" blockade on Gaza, dpa reported.
The UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, the Argentina's Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, further said in an emergency UN Security Council meeting that Monday's attack on the a humanitarian aid flotilla off Gaza's coast would not have happened without the blockade.
The call to end the blockade was also made the British and Brazilian ambassadors before the UN.
Fernandez-Taranco spoke at the meeting in the name of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Echoing Ban's comments earlier from Uganda, Fernandez-Taranco called for a thorough investigation of events. He noted that the incident happened when all efforts should be focusing on confidence- building and on promoting talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Brazil's Ambassador to the United Nations, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, asked for an "immediate" end of the blockade, and described the attack on the aid flotilla as "deplorable." She further requested an "independent" investigation of events.