- Title: UN: U.N. Security Council members condemn Israeli attack on U.N. personnel.
- Date: 28th July 2006
- Summary: (AMERICA) UNITED NATIONS (FILE) (REUTERS) REPORTER TAKING NOTES
- Embargoed: 12th August 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: War / Fighting
- Reuters ID: LVA4DMZ3JVW4GZTAUXC8Y2NFJY1X
- Story Text: China asked the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday (July 26) to condemn an Israeli attack on a U.N. observer post in southern Lebanon that killed four peacekeepers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
Chinese U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters, "For China and the others, that we condemn this because I think any attack on the United Nations positions and United Nations personnel is inexcusable and unacceptable"
Guangya agreed even before formal deliberations began, however, to soften his draft text by deleting a call for an immediate end to the fighting in Lebanon and a reference to the "apparently deliberate targeting" of U.N. troops by Israeli forces.
The changes were made after Wang met privately with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, diplomats said.
Bolton said the American objective was to move quickly on this tragic incident and not get embroiled in other questions such as whether there should be a cease-fire.
"The objective of the United States here is to make an appropriate statement here in a very timely fashion about the deaths of the four UNIFIL observers and not to make this statement a backdoor way of getting into cease-fire or other larger political or military questions. That's not appropriate here. We need to move quickly on this tragic incident and not get embroiled in larger questions," said Bolton.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israel on Tuesday (July 25) to investigate what he termed the "apparently deliberate targeting" of the U.N. observer post.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday he had spoken to Annan to express "deep sorrow" over the four deaths in Lebanon and to say he was ordering an investigation.
But he voiced shock at Annan's suggestion that the attack was deliberate.
Following a closed-door briefing on the attack by Jane Holl Lute, a deputy head of U.N. peacekeeping operations, council members hoped the 15-nation body would adopt a statement on Wednesday or Thursday.
The deaths raised questions about whether peacekeepers should remain in south Lebanon while the international community debates whether to send in new forces. France and others have suggested UNIFIL could help deliver aid or protect humanitarian workers.
Both the 2,000-soldier U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and the 155-strong U.N. Truce Supervision Organization remain in the area despite intense fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah militia.
Wang's initial draft had referred to "the apparently deliberate targeting" of the U.N. post by Israel, reflecting the wording of a statement issued by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan the evening before.
The draft also called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities on the ground so as to avoid further casualties and damages to the civilians." A later draft dropped both phrases.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission said 21 strikes occurred within 300 meters (yards) of the patrol base, including 12 artillery rounds which fell within 100 meters (yards), four of which scored direct hits on the base, she said.
Throughout the day, U.N. officials had protested the close firings directly to the Israeli military and to the Israeli Mission to the United Nations in New York, Holl Lute said.
The U.N. has maintained that to date, rescue workers had been able to recover the remains of just three of the four peacekeepers presumed killed in the attack.
Holl Lute also said that while U.N. posts have come under attack from both Hizbollah and Israel, Hizbollah attacks have consisted of small arms fire while Israeli close firings have come in the form of artillery and air strikes.
Even as Security Council members condemned the attack on U.N. personnel, Syria's U.N. ambassador complained of another important development -- the fact that Damascus was not invited to the international Middle East conference in Rome, which he said should have discussed "Israeli occupation" rather than a new force for Lebanon.
"How come some people would like to reshape the fate of the Middle East or the map of the Middle East without consulting with the peoples of this area?" ambassador Bashar Jaafari told reporters, "How come the fate of our area is decided 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) away from it and without consulting the peoples of the area? I am talking about the conference of Rome where Syria was not there, where many other countries concerned were not there."
Jaafari said the solution to the conflict was not about sending a U.N. or another kind of international force to south Lebanon, as participants in the Rome conference advocated.
"The solution should deal with the core issue of the conflict, which is the continuous Israeli occupation of part of our lands, in Palestine, in Syria and in Lebanon," he said.
Among those attending the Rome meeting, called by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were foreign ministers from Italy, Britain, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey as well as the prime minister of Lebanon, the president of the World Bank and the U.N. secretary-general.
Jaafari said former U.S. administrations had recognized the need to deal with Syria but the United States had withdrawn its ambassador from Damascus 15 months ago.
Jaafari said that American diplomacy is isolating itself by trying to isolate Syria.
He was asked about Terje Roed-Larsen, the Norwegian diplomat who accompanied U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Rome and was part of a three-member team Annan had sent to the Middle East.
Syria had refused to allow the team in with Roed-Larsen, who Damascus considers partial towards Israel, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.
Jaafari avoided answering directly but said Syria would gladly receive Annan, himself, as a mediator.
Jaafari said that Syria is willing to discuss seriously the issues on the table in our area, at the highest level, with the Secretary-General and that he was the one who could deliver the message of establishing peace in the area. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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