Annan Urges Mideast Intervention

The Middle East risks “sliding toward full-fledged war” unless Western powers intervene in the conflict, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the Security Council in unusually blunt language Thursday.

“Truly, we are nearing the edge of the abyss,” Annan said, noting that more than 60 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in political violence in the last seven days, in what looks to be the highest weekly death toll since fighting broke out in the region 17 months ago.

The “breakdown of trust is so total” and “the clamor on both sides for revenge” so intense that third-party mediation is essential, Annan told the council in a meeting that was convened Thursday morning at the insistence of Arab states.

But Israel, with the crucial backing of the United States, remains strongly opposed to new U.N. negotiating initiatives. And many Security Council members want to avoid a public confrontation with Washington over the Middle East, diplomats here said.

Annan spoke to the council shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went on television and announced plans to build buffer zones between Israelis and Palestinians. Hours before that, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat had appealed to Palestinians to honor his earlier calls for a halt to armed violence, an appeal that some of his followers said does not apply to attacks on Israelis inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Security Council discussed the conflict behind closed doors before Annan’s public remarks and agreed to convene an open debate on Middle East policy early next week. Some members are asking the council to dispatch an emergency mission to the region, a proposal opposed by Israel and the United States.

Annan said Thursday that Western governments must “move beyond” their repeated calls for the Israelis and Palestinians to implement CIA Director George J. Tenet’s cease-fire plan and former Sen. George J. Mitchell’s “confidence-building” proposals.

“As we know, the parties have not implemented either of these plans,” Annan said. “If Tenet and Mitchell have not failed, they can certainly not be said to have succeeded.”

The Security Council was pulled back into the Middle East conflict at the request of Arab diplomats here, who formally asked the council to “consider the extremely dangerous situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and take the necessary action.” Palestinian envoys, in a separate appeal, also asked the council to intervene.

“We cannot leave this situation, deteriorating as it is on a daily basis, Israeli action becoming more brutal day after day, and the Security Council sitting idle and not doing anything about it,” said Hussein Hassouna, a representative of the League of Arab States.

The State Department reacted coolly to the calls for U.N. intervention, with U.S. diplomats anticipating yet another round of Arab-backed draft resolutions and American veto threats. The Bush administration wielded its veto power in March and December 2001 to block proposed resolutions urging international mediation and “monitoring mechanisms” in the region.

“We have always felt that the focus needs to remain on the efforts of the parties in the region, and particularly at this moment on the efforts of Mr. Arafat to stop the violence,” Richard Boucher, the State Department’s chief spokesman, said in Washington. “But we have always been willing to discuss things with others [at the U.N.], and we are consulting them.”

European diplomats here, increasingly open in their criticism of perceived U.S. detachment from the Middle East dispute, have begun to coalesce behind a French proposal to jump-start peace talks with the preemptive recognition of a Palestinian state. The German and Spanish foreign ministries have voiced tentative support for the plan, which the French have said would include new Palestinian elections and Palestinian recognition of Israel’s sovereignty within its pre-1967 borders.

Britain, the closest U.S. ally on the council, is working to avert a collision with Washington on the Middle East. But even British diplomats said Thursday that they are hoping the council will call for new negotiations next week, despite U.S. misgivings about further U.N. resolutions on the issue.

“Violence is being used as part of a deliberate policy on both sides, and it is pointless,” said Jeremy Greenstock, Britain’s chief U.N. envoy. “I hope the council will collectively be saying that.”