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UN Urged to Quickly Decide on Protection Force for Mideast
A delegation from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Monday requested the United Nations Security Council to urgently deploy a UN force to protect Palestinian civilians on the territory occupied by Israel.
After a private meeting with the Security Council, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, foreign minister of Qatar who heads the delegation, told reporters that "We urge them not to spend a lot of time, because every minute we are talking there are people either wounded or killed in that area."
"We will lose peace and we will lose hope of peace if there is no immediate and quick action taken by the international community," he said.
He said there was frustration in the Muslim world, among more than 1 billion Muslims, at the slaughter which began two months ago.
The OIC delegation includes the foreign ministers of Iran, Malaysia, Morocco and Senegal.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Yehada Lancry, said that his country still objects to a proposed 2,000-strong UN observer force that the Palestinians have demanded be immediately deployed.
He said Israel was convinced that only the bilateral track between Israel and the Palestinians could achieve results.
However, he indicated that there is some room to negotiate a possible international observer force to move into Palestinian territories, adding that he thinks UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan could explore some formulas.
The Security Council asked Annan on November 17 to solicit feedback from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict about a French proposal for a mobile force of unarmed military observers in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
The recent bloody conflict has so far led to the death of nearly 300 people, mostly Palestinians.
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