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(Update 2) Ambassadors of Japan's G-7 Partners to Skip Nagasaki Ceremony

(Update 2) Ambassadors of Japan's G-7 Partners to Skip Nagasaki Ceremony

   Nagasaki, Aug. 8 (Jiji Press)--The ambassadors to Japan of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States will not attend an annual peace ceremony to be held in Nagasaki on Friday, Shiro Suzuki, mayor of the southwestern Japan city, said Thursday.
   The six countries, Japan's Group of Seven partners, have voiced concern that Nagasaki did not invite Israel, which is in fierce fighting with Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, to this year's ceremony.
   Suzuki told reporters that the decision not to invite Israel "was not made for a political reason," and that it will not be changed. "We want to hold the ceremony smoothly in a calm and solemn atmosphere," the mayor added. "We must not be affected by any obstruction."
   The southwestern city decided in June not to invite Russia and Belarus to the peace ceremony for the third consecutive year over their invasion of Ukraine. It said on July 31 that it would not invite Israel as well, amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
   Suzuki later gave oral explanations to the ambassadors of the six countries and the European Union, also a G-7 member, or their deputies about the decision not to invite Israel this year, but was unable to obtain full understanding from them.

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AFP-JIJI PRESS NEWS JOURNAL


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