February 13, 2002
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed to Israel to end the virtual house arrest of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The UN leader urged both sides to stop the deadly spiral of violence in the Middle East and return to the negotiating table. Clearly directing his remarks at Israel, Annan said making progress on security-related issues "without addressing the occupation will not bring lasting security" - and that "preconditions" should not become barriers to progress toward peace.
In some of his toughest comments on the 16-month conflict, Annan said the peace process was "in distress" and "the situation on the ground has deteriorated to unprecedented levels," with over 1,100 dead and up to 20,000 injured, the overwhelming majority Palestinians. "The parties should move away from confrontation and recriminations, and return to the negotiating table," he said, stressing that the first step must be to start implementing a truce deal drafted last year by CIA chief George Tenet.
In a drive to end terrorist attacks on Israelis, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government has blockaded Palestinian towns, carried out targeted killings of suspected militants and conducted military incursions that have destroyed much of the infrastructure of Palestinian-ruled territory. Israel has also placed tanks outside Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, bottling him up for more than two months.
Sharon has rejected Palestinian requests to halt these operations, saying the Palestinians must first root out terrorism. He said Arafat would have to arrest the Palestinians responsible for the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi as well as those involved in what Israel says was a plot to smuggle a shipload of arms from Iran to the Palestinian Authority by sea.
Annan said "the destruction of the Palestinian Authority's infrastructure will only increase the difficulty it has in meeting both its political and its security commitments". "Certainly, the virtual house arrest imposed on president Arafat should be lifted." The secretary-general was making the opening speech for the 2002 session of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
Palestinian envoy Nasser Al-Kidwa told the committee Israel was not only trying to destroy the Palestinian Authority "and any potential for peace" but was trying to inflict maximum suffering on its people by destroying what's left of its infrastructure. "These actions are accelerating the dangerous slide of the whole region towards war and confrontation," he said.
Al-Kidwa blamed the United States for allowing Sharon and his government "to escape the peace process, to thwart the existing agreements, to put aside and refuse implementation of the Mitchell recommendations, and finally to wage an all-out attack against the Palestinian Authority and its leaders".
US President George W. Bush has echoed Sharon, saying the Palestinians must do more to reduce terrorist attacks on Israel. Annan has been working with the United States, Russia and the European Union to achieve a ceasefire and reactivate the stalled political process.
He said preconditions "can all too easily be thwarted by extremists" so it was vital to advance the Tenet deal and recommendations of an international commission led by former US Senator George Mitchell "as a package".
The commission proposed a series of confidence-building steps, including an Israeli settlement freeze and the outlawing of militant groups by the Palestinians. "We have seen in the past that extremists can be isolated, and security improved, once there are renewed prospects for negotiations and the climate of mistrust, frustration and despair is eased," Annan said.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
