MIDDLE EAST: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visits Middle East to reinforce Lebanon truce

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday (August 29) said he hoped soon to double to 5,000 the number of U.N. troops in southern Lebanon and urged Israel and Hizbollah to end disagreements blocking a permanent ceasefire. Annan said he would ask Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in talks on Wednesday (August 30) to lift the air and sea blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the start of the war nearly seven weeks ago. Speaking after meeting Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz following a visit to Lebanon, Annan said Israel had committed most violations of a two-week-old truce that ended the war. Annan is in the region to secure full implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which brought about the truce and calls for deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers by Nov. 4. "My hopes are that with the French deployment moving forward and with the Italians beginning on Friday, that we should be able to double relatively quickly the 2,500 men we have on the ground and move up to 5,000 so that the Israelis can withdraw," Annan said. Peretz said Israel would pull out thousands of troops that remain in southern Lebanon once a "reasonable" number of U.N. soldiers had deployed but he did not give a figure. Annan met the families of the abducted soldiers as well as loved ones of a soldier seized by Palestinian militants from Gaza on June 25. He promised to help win their release, the families said. Benny Regev, brother of kidnapped soldier Eldad Regev, said: "We are looking for a sign of life. This is something we need now and we need it urgently because since the day when we last saw our sons it was the last time we heard from them." The war cost the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers. The United Nations hopes to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Israeli or Hizbollah forces and policed by the expanded U.N. force alongside some 15,000 Lebanese troops.

ITN Source | August 30, 2006

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