By NNN-KUNA
United Nations : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Security Council to assist the Palestinians and Israelis achieve the target of reaching a peace agreement by the end of the year.
“It is my hope that we can achieve this ambitions goal. I believe all of us must ask ourselves, and the parties, two simple questions: if not this, what? If not now, when?” Ban told the council in a rare appearance in the council as it held its monthly meeting on the situation in the Middle East Tuesday.
He said this process is “too important to be allowed to lose momentum through inaction or indifference, or to be overwhelmed by violence. It is essential that it receives the support of the international community, including this council.”
The Annapolis conference, held last November in the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, marked the first time the two parties agreed to seek a peace agreement before the end of the year.
Ban expressed satisfaction that the violence has decreased somewhat during the last few weeks but warned that the “tensions remain high”.
“I am deeply concerned about the prospect of renewed violence, and what this would mean both for the civilian populations in the conflict zone and for the peace process we are all trying to advance,” he said.
“I remain personally determined and committed” to working towards peace within the framework agreed upon — an end to the occupation that began in 1967, based on the foundations of the Madrid Conference; the principle of land for peace, council resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.
A delegation of Arab envoys met with Ban last week to urge him to reactive the Annapolis peace process.
Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told the council that the international community and all regional parties should also give strong support to efforts to bring about a cessation of violence in and around Gaza and a reopening of crossings, otherwise violence will increase.
If no support is lent, he warned, “the potential for further violence is all too real, with grave consequences for civilians, for regional peace and security, and for the political process itself”.
On the Russian proposal to hold an international conference on the Middle East in Moscow in the coming period, he said “we are supportive of the idea of such a meeting”.
Contrary to his speeches in the past, Pascoe mentioned the word “terrorism”, in general terms, only once Tuesday. A UN official later admitted that the UN is cutting down on the use of this word when referring to Palestinian militants.
On Lebanon, Pascoe expressed regret that the parliamentary session to elect a president was postponed for the 17th time Monday. “The longer the stalemate continues, the greater the chance for the situation to deteriorate further, both politically and in terms of the security situation,” he said.
He said the reconstruction of the Nahr el Bared camp will be a “long and complex undertaking” and urged the donor community to help Lebanon in this effort.
Palestinian envoy Riyadh Mansour told the council that it is incumbent upon its members to uphold their responsibilities and take the necessary measures to bring an end to Israeli violations and breaches in the occupied territories.
“The council must undertake urgent and practical measures, including measures prescribed by the (UN) Charter, to ensure Israel’s scrupulous compliance with all of its obligations under international law and the cessation of its illegal practices, which endanger the international efforts being exerted for the realisation of peace,” he said.
He added that Israel should be compelled to completely freeze all settlement activities and to allow the opening of the Gaza Strip’s border crossing. “The current situation in the Gaza Strip is humanly catastrophic and we cannot remain silent about it,” he said.
He vowed to resort to the council until it upholds its responsibilities and other UN organs in order to bring an end to the violations and “crimes” being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.
US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said the US continues to work to support progress towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before the end of 2008, recalling that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the region later this week to continue her discussions with the parties.
He took the opportunity to criticize the council’s monthly meetings on the situation in the Middle East, initiated by Syria when it was a council member.
Since 2002, he explained, it has been the practice of this council to have regular briefings on the developments in the Middle East. “Yet the polarisation and divisions of the UN membership over the conflict all too often manifest themselves as heated political statements, that do little to help advance the cause of peace or help the Palestinian people in any tangible way.”
It has long been the conviction of the US, he added, that a “solution will only be achieved by direct negotiations between the parties, facilitated and supported by constructive international engagement.”
“That is why the bulk of our efforts are focused on making a difference on the ground. If these types of meetings do not contribute to that effort, or worse, if they fuel the tensions that impede constructive engagement, then we need to ask ourselves whether the public format of debates in New York truly helps create the environment necessary to facilitate the pursuit of the two-state solution,” he noted.
Responding to Khalilzad, Mansour later told reporters “we are willing not to participate in these discussions in exchange of one or two practical steps that get us closer to our objective and put an end to the tragedy of our people.”
Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin told the council that his government remained “clearly disturbed” by the continuing Israeli settlement activity and called for a complete freeze on it in accordance with the Quartet demands.
He said Russia is wedded to the principles of the peace process and strives to see the Middle East become a peaceful and stable region where all states, including Israel, live in peace and security.
To achieve this objective, he said, there is need to step up the efforts of the international community on mobilizing support for the Annapolis process and ensure its success. “To this end we are conducting active consultations with Quartet, regional and UN partners and others to achieve preliminary understanding on the convening in Moscow of an international meeting on the middle east,” he said, recalling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent visit to the region to discuss the proposal.
Churkin expressed hope that in the very near future “we will be in a position to determine its (meeting) conduct, calendar and agenda.”
The council was scheduled to meet again later Monday to listen to many more speakers including Syria and Lebanon.