Annan Encouraged by 'Quartet' Meeting on Middle East

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Annan Encouraged by 'Quartet' Meeting on Middle East

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday he was pleased by the results of Thursday's meeting on the Middle East situation, in Washington D.C.by the diplomatic "Quartet."

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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday he was pleased by the results of Thursday's meeting on the Middle East situation, in Washington D.C.by the diplomatic "Quartet."

The Quartet comprised of the U.N., the United States, the Russian Federation and the European Union.

"I'm encouraged by what happened in Washington yesterday," Annan said in remarks to the press, after briefing the Security Council on the Quartet meeting.

He expressed hope that given the suffering of the innocent civilians caught in the conflict, "the military option is going tobe so totally discredited, that we will all turn around and focus on the political search for peace."

This sentiment was echoed by the special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen, who accompanied Annan at the Quartet talks and the council briefing.

"For the first time in a very long time, the conference in Washington yesterday produced a beam of hope, and we haven't seen that for a very, very long time in the Middle East," Larsen told reporters outside the council chamber.

He lauded the fact that the Quartet meeting had taken the practical step of deciding to convene the international conference."The principals in the meeting instructed their envoys who were present to immediately start hammering out the proposal on participants, where and when the meeting should be, the agenda, the format, etc.," said Larsen.

On the Jenin fact-finding mission, he noted that the secretary-general had consulted with the Israeli government, while a prominent member of the Security Council had put forward a resolution on the concept.

"On that basis, we thought it was the right thing, we still think it's the right thing, and we regret that it turned out not to be practically possible to carry through the fact-finding mission," he said.

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