Australia has abstained from voting on a UN resolution that called on Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months. Australia’s UN ambassador, James Larsen, told the UN general assembly that Australia ‘supports many of the principles of this resolution’ and was ‘already doing much of what it calls for’. He said Australia wanted to vote for a resolution that ‘directly reflected’ the advisory opinion of the international court of justice. ‘We are concerned that, by making demands of the entire UN membership that go beyond the scope of the advisory opinion, the resolution distracts from what the world needs Israel to do.’