UN Secretary General Kofi Annan left Beirut on Saturday on the final leg of a Middle East tour that will include talks later in the day with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, reported Haaretz newspaper.
The UN secretary general flies first to Amman, Jordan. From there he will take a private airplane to the West Bank town of Ramallah and a meeting with Arafat in the afternoon, said the paper.
He is expected to meet Sharon on Saturday evening, said Haaretz, adding that he will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday.
Annan is seeking to kickstart the Middle East peace process by building support for a ceasefire agreement.
In Beirut, Annan appealed for a continuation of the “unofficial quiet” in south Lebanon, saying the Middle East already faces enough problems with Israeli-Palestinian “violence,” the Daily Star newspaper quoted him as saying.
Annan described the Lebanese government’s dealings with the UN as “satisfactory” and said that he was “quite pleased” with developments along the Lebanon-Israel border.
“I think the border is now witnessing an unofficial quiet and I would like to see that continue,” he said, following a meeting with Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
He urged all sides to abide by the UN-delineated Blue Line, said the paper.
“We shall continue to prepare reports and submit them to the Security Council, and point with our fingers at any party responsible for breaches,” he said.
Annan promised he would raise Israel’s ariel violations of the Blue Line with the Israeli authorities.
“I hope these breaches are halted because we don’t need any event that could trigger a military confrontation along the line,” he said. “We have enough problems as it is on our hands with what’s going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and we don’t want to see another battlefront opening.” – Albawaba.com
