Briton appointed as UN Middle East coordinator

United Nations, May 16: Briton Michael Williams was named as the new UN special coordinator for the West Asia, based in Jerusalem, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council.

A former BBC correspondent and adviser in Britain's foreign office, Williams replaces Peruvian Alvaro de Soto, who resigned earlier this month, after a 25-year career.

The post involves serving as UN envoy to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as well as the quartet of West Asia advisers, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Ban, in a letter to the council yesterday, also said Williams would coordinate ''all UN activities on the ground related to the Middle East peace process, with the aim of ensuring that the United Nations contribution is fully integrated and coordinated.'' Williams currently is serving as a West Asia adviser to the secretary-general and before that worked for two British foreign secretaries, Robin Cooke and Jack Straw. He also served as a senior official in UN peacekeeping missions in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia.

Williams worked for Amnesty International before joining the BBC. Britain, diplomats said, wanted the post after the United States objected to Kieran Prendergast, a British undersecretary-general for UN affairs, in part because of differences over the war in Iraq.

Reuters>