UNITED NATIONS, April 12: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council on Friday to consider calling for an international force in the Middle East to curb violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa quickly welcomed the initiative. But the United States, Israel’s closest ally, expressed doubts as the Jewish state has long opposed a third-party presence in the region.
“We just don’t see how it can happen unless the two parties agree to it,” a U.S. official said.
The official stressed the priority now should be to focus on the peace mission of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, which was reeling from Friday’s suicide bombing.
Annan condemned the suicide attack as “morally repugnant” and called on both Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cooperate with Powell.
The way out of the crisis was for both sides to move toward an immediate ceasefire and then to negotiations “on a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement,” Annan said in a statement read by chief U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard.
Annan, in Geneva to address the UN Human Rights Commission, asked Kieran Prendergast, his undersecretary-general for political affairs, to present his proposal to the 15-nation council for deployment of a multinational force to curb violence between Israelis and Palestinians and support political negotiations.
Prendergast said members would await Annan’s return from Europe before reacting. He was due back in New York on Saturday.
DANGEROUS AND APPALLING SITUATION: In Geneva, the UN leader told reporters the situation was “so dangerous and the humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling, the proposition that a force should be sent in there ... can no longer be deferred”.
Speaking before the suicide bombing, he expressed concern at reports from U.N. humanitarian agencies of “grave violations” by Israeli forces during their two-week West Bank offensive and renewed his call to Israel to bow to recent council resolutions and withdraw its forces from Palestinian towns and refugee camps.
Annan did not say whether the force should be sent before Israelis and Palestinians agreed to a truce. But he said it was urgently needed.
A multinational force could be quickly organized by individual countries, which then could go to the Security Council for a mandate.
Eckhard said Annan was calling for an international force rather than a UN force because a U.N. mission would take too long to organize. At this stage, he said Annan was “floating a concept, not planning a force or planning a mission.”
“It’s a reaction to the carnage that is taking place — that we cannot remain neutral as people are being killed on both sides from one day to the next,” Eckhard said.
“Given the gravity of the situation, the secretary-general is asking that we deal with this immediately and effectively,” he said.—Reuters