Annan rebukes UN members on Mideast peace

United Nations, Dec 13: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan rebuked General Assembly members as well as leading international players for failing to come to grips with the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In his last address on the West Asia to the UN Security Council, Annan said a settlement had defied several generations of world leaders and ''I, too, will leave office without an end to the prolonged agony.'' Annan ends 10 years on the job on December. 31 to be succeeded by South Korean Ban Ki-moon.

''Mistrust between Israelis and Palestinians has reached new heights,'' he said. ''We need a new and urgent push for peace.'' Annan chastised supporters of the Palestinians for their criticism of Security Council actions, where the United States has vetoed most measures critical of Israel, when their own conduct in the 192-member General Assembly helped no one.

''Some may feel satisfaction at repeatedly passing General Assembly resolutions or holding conferences that condemn Israel's behavior,'' Annan said. ''But one should also ask whether such steps bring any tangible relief or benefit to the Palestinians.'' Describing decades of resolutions and a proliferation of special committees, Annan asked if this had any effect on Israel other than to strengthen the belief ''that this great organization is too one-sided to be allowed a significant role in the West Asia peace process.'' ''Even worse, some of the rhetoric used in connection with the issue implies a refusal to concede the very legitimacy of Israel's existence, let alone the validity of its security concerns,'' Annan said. ''What was done to Jews and others by the Nazis remains an undeniable tragedy, unique in human history.'' As for the so-called quartet of advisers, Annan said the group had to engage the parties directly and ''be clearer at the outset on the parameters of an end-game deal.'' He said quartet members -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- needed to do more to restore faith in its ''own serious and effectiveness.'' In remarks made during a daylong debate on the conflict, Annan delivered advice and criticism to both sides, saying Palestinians had been ''miserably abused and exploited by Israel, by the Arab world, sometimes by their own leaders and perhaps even, at times by the international community.'' Palestinians, he said, have suffered for decades of military occupation by Israel, new Israeli settlers added every month, a heavy presence of Israeli soldiers and 500 checkpoints to control their movement. And now the Palestinian Authority, paralyzed by a debilitating political and financial crisis, was no longer able to provide security or basic services.

''Israelis may reply that they are merely protecting themselves from terrorism, which they have every right to do,'' he said. But he said that argument carries less weight ''as long as the occupation in the West Bank becomes more burdensome and the settlement expansion continues.'' ''Israel will receive more understanding if its actions were clearly designed to help end an occupation rather than to entrench it,'' he said. ''Israel's democracy can thrive only if the occupation over another people ends.''

REUTERS