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Annan to Go to Mideast
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan leaves for the Middle East late Sunday, trying to help find ways of checking violence in the region, a UN statement said.
He will arrive in Tel Aviv late Monday and is expected to talk with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the statement said.
"In making his decision, the secretary-general feels it is imperative that he makes every possible effort to break the prevailing impasse between Israel and the Palestinian authority," the statement added.
Annan's trip follows UN Security Council's resolution Saturday which condemns Israel's "excessive use of force" against Palestinians. Many countries have urged the end of the violence which caused more than 80 deaths, mostly Palestinians.
Clashes have continued in the occupied Palestinian territories and in some Israeli Arab towns, which started on September 28 after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to a disputed Jerusalem shrine revered by both Jews and Muslims.
Annan, who joined the council's meeting Saturday, said he was "alarmed" by the spread of violence from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories to the Israeli-Lebanese border.
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