(AKI) - US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was expected to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab leaders at the United Nations in New York late onTuesday in a bid to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. "The purpose of her trip is to move forward the international efforts to create a ceasefire in Gaza," said a State Department official.
Rice was due to meet Abbas, Arab ministers and other allies including Turkey's foreign minister, Ali Babacan. Babacan has been among key players in the Middle East that have been working for a ceasefire between the ruling Islamist Hamas movement that governs Gaza and Israel, which has been conducting a military offensive in the territory for eleven days.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon intensified his diplomatic drive to secure a Gaza ceasefire on Monday and held talks with Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa, and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates at UN headquarters. "Our task is to find fast and real solutions. It is regrettable that the call by the Security Council has not been heeded by the parties concerned. I believe that the Security Council should live up to its responsibilities under the UN charter and bring this crisis to an end and establish a durable, permanent peace in the region," he said.
The UN Security Council was to meet again on Tuesday to consider Arab calls for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip and urgent humanitarian and medical aid for Palestinian civilians. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member body this month, was to lead Tuesday's meeting.
France was reportedly working with Arab states to finalise a draft resolution for an immediate ceasefire, which included an end to the Israeli military assault as well as the firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas militants. The resolution would also provide for the provision of humanitarian aid and a resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as well as a mechanism to monitor the truce and protect civilians.
While Europeans and Arabs have broadly been calling for an immediate ceasefire in the latest violence, the United States has been urging a "during and sustainable" truce. |