By KUNA,
United Nations : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon late Thursday told visiting Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak that it is “vital” to break the current impasse in the Middle East peace process, and urged the Israeli government to fully engage with the Quartet.
Ban’s press office said in a statement, following their meeting here, that both officials discussed efforts to move the Middle East peace process forward, and “the Secretary-General emphasized that it was vital to break the current stalemate and progress towards resolving all final status issues.” The statement did not mention whether both officials discussed the Israeli settlement activities or not, knowing that the talks between Palestinians and Israelis are frozen because Israel refuses to stop building settlements.
The statement added that Ban also urged “the government of Israel’s full engagement with the Quartet,” UN, the United States, the European Union, and Russia.
Ban took “positive note” of the recent announcement by the Israeli government of additional measures for Gaza and the West Bank, including transfer of security in some areas to the Palestinian Authority, and urged Barak to facilitate the full implementation of the announced measures and take further steps to ease the suffering in Gaza.
According to the statement, Ban also noted “with appreciation” Barak’s confirmation that preparations for the Israeli withdrawal from northern Ghajar, Lebanon, as called for in Security Council resolution 1701 (2006), were on track.
The statement did not say whether the two officials talked about the situation in neighboring Egypt, but said they discussed the “regional situation.” Following the meeting and commenting on President Hosni Mubarak’s speech late Thursday in which he said he handed power to his Vice-President without saying he would step down, Barak told reporters “it is up to the Egyptian people to find their way and to do it according to their own constitution.” Asked about Israel’s refusal to stop settlement activities and the prospects of overcoming the impasse, Barak said “the peace process can emerge only from a dialogue between the partners.
“We are ready to open immediate discussions about how to establish security arrangements with the future Palestinian state,” he said.
“Ultimately, we have to deal with all six core issues face to face in order to have a breakthrough. I am still optimist that in spite of all the turbulence around us, we should look for opportunities within those difficulties rather than to spiral into a sense of uncertainty that paralyzes us from acting toward a better, more stable region,” he added.