Posted on 01/29/2004 6:21:36 AM PST by yonif
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and senior European Union officials appealed to Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to get back to the negotiating table in the wake of Thursday's suicide bombing.
Annan and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country holds the EU presidency, both condemned the attack on a bus in Jerusalem, which killed at least 10 bystanders and wounded 50 others.
"I am once again going to appeal to leaders for the sake of their people and their nations to summon the courage and leadership to get back to the table," Annan said.
He urged them to "make ... parallel concessions and to take confidence-building measures to move the process ahead."
Cowen said the bus attack should not deter attempts to implement the so-called road map for peace that is being pushed by the U.N., the EU, Russia and the United States.
"The bombings ... are deplorable, they represent a path to violence, they are certainly contrary to the interests of peace," said Cowen. "It's a very deeply pessimistic background against which we are operating, but inaction is not an option."
Annan, speaking to reporters at the European Parliament after receiving the EU's Sakharov human rights prize, said he was "frustrated and disappointed" on the ongoing stalemate in the Middle East.
He said more had to be done by Israeli and Palestinian political leaders to implement the road map.
"We cannot do it without the will and determination of the parties," he said. "We need to find ways to end this cycle of violence, revenge in attacks as we have seen today," Annan said. "We will do the best we can, but they have to show the leadership for the sake of their own people."
The road map calls for an end to violence and aims to build a Palestinian state by 2005. But talks have sputtered amid the violence.
They have funded, supported, encouraged, and helped Arafat murder both Americans, and Christians and Jews worldwide.
It is particularly shameful to hear this out of the Irish given their history.
Once a bomb goes off,
I think you're at violence,
not a "path" to it...
"We cannot do it without the will and determination of the parties," he said. "We need to find ways to end this cycle of violence, revenge in attacks as we have seen today," Annan said. "We will do the best we can, but they have to show the leadership for the sake of their own people."Annan has his head up his kazoo, as usual.
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