Palestinian ambassador to Ireland backs call for international force
The Palestinian ambassador to Ireland has expressed support for the idea of an international security force to restore calm to the Middle East.
Dr Hikmat Ajjuri, the Palestinian delegate general in Ireland, said today that the international community had to intervene to bring an end to the violence.
He said he wanted to see a UN force intervening between Israel and Lebanon and between Israel and the Palestinians because the silence from the international community was partly responsible for fuelling the conflict.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan earlier this week called for the deployment of peacekeepers on the Israeli-Lebanese border in order to end the current conflict in the area.
More than 240 Lebanese people, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel began bombing the country last week in response to the kidnapping of two soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas.
Twenty-five Israelis, around half of them civilians, have also been killed in cross-border attacks by Hezbollah.
