New Zealand Foreign Minister Went Rogue in Backing UN Resolution, Opposition Charges

"New Zealand's foreign affairs minister did not have the required approval of the country's Cabinet to support a United Nations Security Council resolution critical of Israel, an opposition party has charged.

On Tuesday, the leader of the populist political party New Zealand First cited the Cabinet manual as requiring such a proposal get Cabinet approval - even though Prime Minister Bill English said that Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully did not need such approval to co-sponsor a measure calling for a halt to the building of Israeli settlements and the re-establishing of the pre-1967 borders.

'Section 5.73 of the Cabinet manual expressly requires that any international proposal, including 'denunciation,' must first be approved by Cabinet,' Winston Peters, the New Zealand First leader and a lawmaker for Northland, said in the party's statement.

'Mr. McCully should never have been allowed to act unilaterally on such an important issue,' Peters also said..."