Israel denies U.N. experts' claims that it is trading with ‘Blood Diamonds’

Israel’s Diamond Controller: Israel does not trade with rough-diamond-producing countries outside the boundaries established by the Kimberley Process
 
Israel has strongly denied U.N. accusations that it is trading with the Ivory Coast whose diamonds are under a United Nations Security Council ban. Israel’s Diamond Controller Shmuel Mordechai said the country does not trade with rough-diamond-producing countries outside the boundaries established by the Kimberley Process (KP).
 
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is an international governmental certification scheme that was set up to prevent the trade in diamonds that fund conflict. Launched in January 2003, the scheme requires governments to certify that shipments of rough diamonds are free from blood diamonds. 
 
His comments came in response to a U.N. report last week that indicated that several countries need to step up efforts to stop the illegal export and sale of Ivory Coast diamonds, including Israel United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Guinea and Liberia. Mordechai said in a statement that “We view the accusations leveled at us with severity and reject the accusations outright,” Mordechai said in a statement. “Israel has been a member of the Kimberley Process to prevent illegal trafficking of rough from the start and carries out the most stringent monitoring and enforcement necessary in its trade of rough diamonds. He added that"Israel has never dealt in diamond trade with the Ivory Coast. We are shocked by these false accusations and completely refute them."
 
Mordechai said U.N. experts had visited Israel twice in recent years and were provided with "unequivocal proof" that it had never dealt in rough diamonds from the Ivory Coast or any other countries that are not members of the Kimberley Process.
 
Israel said it would submit an official complaint about its inclusion in the U.N. report at the annual KP plenary meeting that takes place November 2-5 in Namibia.
 
The Security Council is expected to renew for another year an arms embargo and other UN sanctions on the Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer which is still recovering from a civil war. The embargo was imposed in 2004 over violations of a 2003 cease-fire between the government and the rebels.