UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22: Calling for a third party role in the Middle-East, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could slide towards full-fledged war.
“The lack of mutual confidence between the two sides makes a third-party role essential,” Annan told the Security Council. “I truly believe that it is imperative for the Security Council and the wider international community to work in a concerted manner with the parties towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Middle East.”
In his brief yet blunt speech, Annan recounted the “grim” news from the Middle East, cautioning that “we are nearing the edge of the abyss.” With more than 60 people killed over the past week, violence threatened to escalate even further, he said. “Particularly alarming is the growing belief, among both Palestinians and Israelis, that there can be no negotiated solution to the conflict.”
The key interlined problems, according to Annan remained occupation, security, the need to end violence including terrorism, and the economic deprivation and suffering.
“Yet, even at this darkest of hours, there is still room for hope,” he added, recalling that both sides had agreed in principle on the Tenet understandings and the Mitchell Committee recommendations, which together defined an array of security, economic, and political measures that would have moved the parties back to the negotiating table.
Acknowledging that those plans had not met with success, Annan called for full consideration of “imaginative new ideas.” While stressing the need to immediately reduce the violence, the UN Chief said he had “become more and more convinced that trying to resolve the security problem on its own cannot work.”
Instead, he argued, security must be addressed alongside key political issues, particularly the question of land, and economic and social issues, including “the increasingly critical, desperate conditions of the Palestinians.”
Annan said he personally, along with his representatives, had been in very close contact with leaders on both sides, in the region and among the international community.
“The outlook is bleak, but the present course of events is not irreversible,” said Annan. “Let us do everything in our power to persuade the parties to pull back from the brink and take the high road.”
Annan was asked to set the stage for an open Security Council debate with Arab nations pressing for a resolution. An early draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for outside monitoring in the West Bank and Gaza, a proposal Israel rejects and the United States has vetoed in the past.
In addition, the draft proposes a Security Council mission to visit the region and report back by March 15. A US official said Washington wanted no resolution, believing the council would only exacerbate the crisis but both Britain and France said the Security Council needed to take a position, even if it was not as strong as Palestinians wanted.
“Violence is being used as part of a deliberate policy on both sides and it is pointless,” British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said. “I hope the council will collectively be saying that.”
