Mubarak, Annan Mull Mideast Situation over Phone

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 25, 2002

Mubarak, Annan Mull Mideast Situation over Phone

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday discussed the latest Mideast situation with the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Egypt's official MENA news agency said.

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday discussed the latest Mideast situation with the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Egypt's official MENA news agency said.

During the phone call, initiated by Annan, the two men also discussed the ongoing efforts to help quell the Palestinian-Israeli violence, MENA said, without elaborating.

The phone talk came at a time when the violence between the Palestinians and Israel has been raging over the past two weeks, with death tolls on both sides soaring.

On Thursday, Annan said that a reduction in the violence is the most immediate priority, adding that the objective should be achieved together with the resolution of relevant political issues, particularly the question of land and economic and social issues.

"I have become more and more convinced that trying to resolve the security problem on its own can not work. Security can not be dealt with in isolation," said the U.N. chief.

"It has to have a context. It has to be addressed alongside key political issues, particularly the question of land, and the economic and social issues, including the increasingly critical desperate conditions of the Palestinians," he stressed.

The situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has been deteriorating since Israel imposed a siege on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last December.

So far, more than 1,200 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since the outbreak of the violence in late September 2000.

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