More vigorous international engagement vital to Middle East peace – UN official

With a sense of foreboding looming over the conflict-wracked Middle East, a senior United Nations official today called for the international community to be more vigorously engaged in the region’s peace process.

“Violence, not negotiation, continues to be the all too frequent mode of communication in the Middle East,” Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast said in his monthly briefing to the Security Council.

“There is a palpable sense of drift and foreboding, [and] neither side is fulfilling its obligations under the Road Map,” he added, referring to the plan sponsored by the so-called Quartet of the UN, European Union, Russian Federation and United States that calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take a series of parallel and reciprocal steps leading to two States living side-by-side in peace by 2005.

Mr. Prendergast drew attention to Israel’s recent major operation in the Gaza Strip which resulted in the deaths of a large number of Palestinians, many of them civilians. He also underscored the fact that the terror attacks earlier this month in Taba, Egypt, had struck a place which had been known as haven of coexistence and peace.

Speaking in an open session, Mr. Prendergast said the UN remained gravely concerned at the extensive destruction of civilian property by the Israeli army, and that movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians continued to erode the humanitarian situation. He also expressed renewed concern at the continuous, illegal Israeli policy of targeted assassination.

Mr. Prendergast also called on the Palestinian Authority to do everything possible to quell the terror emanating from territory under its control, and to pursue a determined course of reform, including the appointment of an empowered Prime Minister.

He reminded Council members that the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza and the northern West Bank must be full and complete, and be carried out in the context of the Road Map. Israel and the Palestinian Authority must coordinate the implementation of the withdrawal.

“One hears from many quarters the argument that the time has come for a renewed commitment and effort, but that the parties cannot succeed left to themselves. The international community’s more vigorous engagement is therefore an indispensable ingredient if we want to end the violence and bring fresh hope of peace in the Middle East,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the President of the Council said there was widespread concern and dismay in the 15-member body at the situation on the ground and the lack of progress.

The members “confirmed yet again that the way forward, in our view, is the Road Map, and that we should urge both parties to begin to implement as soon as possible the provisions of the Road Map and that there should be an end to the violence,” Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry of the United Kingdom told the press following consultations held after the open briefing.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other aid organizations working in the region “should actually be allowed to have unimpeded access,” he said.