By NNN-KUNA,
United Nations : Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry has described as “significant” the simultaneous Israeli-Syrian announcemnt last week of indirect talks under the auspices of Turkey.
“The significant announcemnt comes after nearly two years of indirect contacts under Turkish auspices…. We welcome the important possibilities opened by these negotiations and hope that they yield progress on this important track of the peace process,” Serry told the Security Council as it held its monthly briefing on the situation in the Middle East Wednesday.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said “progress must be intensified” on the Annapolis track, both in the political negotiations and in action on the ground. “We continue to press and support the parties to intensify cooperation…and meet Road Map commitments,” he said.
He commended the Palestinian Authority for its efforts to disarm and arrest militants and to seize a cache of weapons and explosives in Bethlehem.
On the other hand, he said Israel continues to construct settlements and the separation wall in the occupied territories, in violation of international law and council resolutions. He did not call on Israel to stop such activities.
He commended Qatar and the Arab League for bringing about the Doha agreement which put an end to Lebanon’s 18-month political crisis.
Talking to reporters, Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said he is aware that Israel is now busy with “issues related to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,” in an indirect reference to the bribe scandal he is involved in, but this “historic opportunity that was provided to us after Annapolis might not move in a positive direction if big things don’t happen quickly.”
He called on the UN to double its efforts and on the Quartet to be very active and not to “stay on the side of this show,” stressing that convening a conference in Moscow in the summer to try and reignite the spirit of Annapolis is “useful and might contribute to try and correct a negative course.”
The US invited key Middle East regional players to Annapolis, Maryland, last November in an effort to get serious peace talks going for the first time in years, with the hope that a peace deal would be reached before the end of this year.