Annan arrives in Rome for Mideast conference
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Rome today ahead of a conference that will gather top diplomats and officials from key Mideast players in an effort to stop warfare between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Annan arrived at Rome’s Ciampino airport, the ANSA news agency reported.
Other dignitaries, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was travelling in the Middle East, were expected later in the day.
The gathering opens tomorrow and lasts just a few hours.
“From the Rome conference we expect an economic plan for Lebanon, an aid package, and also and above all a signal that the situation has changed, that the world will no longer accept a weak Lebanese government, blackmailed by Hezbollah armed with missiles,” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Corriere della Sera in an interview published today.
Israel is not among the participants.
Key issues on the table include the possible deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon, conditions for a ceasefire and the humanitarian needs of some 600,000 Lebanese people displaced by Israel’s offensive.
Annan said yesterday that he wants the Rome conference to agree on a package to stop the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and ensure lasting peace between Israel and Lebanon.
He said that in the short-term urgent measures are needed to halt the violence and get humanitarian aid to the Lebanese uprooted by the fighting. But the package should also include a ceasefire, deployment of an international force and the release of two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah, he said.
The United Nations already has a peacekeeping force of 2,000 military personnel in Lebanon – called Unifil – whose mission is to patrol the border. That force, deployed since 1978, has been ineffective in stopping violence in the zone it patrols.
Some countries have expressed support for a new multi-national peacekeeping force, most notably Britain.
Italy, host of tomorrow’s conference, has said it would support the idea of a multi-national force and participate in one provided that there’s a strong mandate from the United Nations.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the deployment of a new international force was a difficult but crucial part of an overall solution to end Lebanon’s political instability.
However, crucial elements about the possible peacekeeping force remain to be defined: how it will be formed, who will contribute to it and what its mandate will be.
Israel – which had so far called for the Lebanese army to take control of the area – signalled a policy shift when it said on Sunday that it would accept a new international force, preferably from Nato.
Gathering at the Foreign Ministry in Rome will be the following countries and organisations: Britain, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, the United Nations, the United States and the World Bank.
Italian security officials were readying a strict security plan in and around the ministry.
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