Annan to Again Push Israel on U.N. Jenin Mission
Sun Apr 28, 8:18 PM ET
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A frustrated Security Council gave U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) one more day on Sunday to resolve an embarrassing impasse with Israel over his fact-finding mission into the Israeli attack on the Palestinian Jenin refugee camp.
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Annan sought the additional day to try to overcome fresh Israeli objections to the mission's ground rules that resulted in the Israeli cabinet complaining that conditions were "not yet right" for it to proceed on Sunday, as planned.
It was the third such delay sought by Israel since Annan announced the mission on April 19 after Israel welcomed it. The mission team, meanwhile, remained on hold in Geneva, awaiting a green light from headquarters.
"The secretary-general's priority is to get the fact-finding mission on the ground as soon as possible," Kieran Prendergast, U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, told reporters after briefing the council behind closed doors on Annan's efforts.
"The council is very frustrated with the delays but supportive of the secretary-general's efforts," he said.
The West Bank camp was the scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel's West Bank offensive, which began March 29 after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.
Palestinians charge a massacre took place in Jenin, with an unknown number of civilians killed. Israel denies this, saying it lost 23 soldiers while at the most 50 Palestinian fighters and civilians were killed.
Envoys from Arab nations said they wanted the council to keep the heat on Israel to let the mission go forward as quickly as possible but did not want to step on Annan's toes.
FOOLISH AND IMPOTENT
"We expect a positive report by tomorrow" from Annan in his efforts to get the fact-finding mission on its way, Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, the current council president, said.
Asked what would happen if the Israelis sought further delays or turned down the mission, he declined to speculate.
But other council diplomats said Annan already had the council's approval to send the team without Israel's approval.
They said that during their closed consultations, several envoys complained that Israel's actions had made both Annan and the council appear foolish and impotent.
But Israeli envoy Aaron Jacob said Annan had talked twice with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday and the two were making progress on resolving their differences, although some obstacles remained.
The council had been on standby in case the mission collapsed after Annan on Friday approved a delay in its departure until Sunday, from Saturday. Israel said at the time the cabinet would need until Sunday to consider approving it.
Israel and the United Nations (news - web sites) had earlier held two days of talks in New York aimed at working out their differences.
During those talks, the United Nations said it was adding four military and police experts to the mission in line with Israeli wishes.
But in the latest set of objections to the mission's scope, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry wrote Annan on Saturday to say Israel wanted to be sure the mission only gathered facts on what happened at Jenin and not make any "observations" on those facts, as Annan had said they might.
Israel also wanted the power to decide which of its officials and documents would be made available to the mission and wanted access to all interviews and documents gathered from the Palestinians, so it could comment on them, according to the letter, dated Saturday and shown to Reuters by a third party.
The Israelis have also expressed concern that information gathered by the mission might be used to prosecute soldiers or government officials on war crimes charges. |
