Reuters: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to go to Lebanon and Israel shortly and probably Syria and Iran as well to help enforce the cease-fire in Lebanon, the United Nations announced on Wednesday. UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to go to Lebanon and Israel shortly and probably Syria and Iran as well to help enforce the cease-fire in Lebanon, the United Nations announced on Wednesday.
The object of Annan’s visit is to implement the August 11 Security Council resolution 1701, which called for a truce between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas and a U.N. force of up to 15,000 troops to help enforce it, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The spokesman could not say if Annan would be in Iran before August 31, the Security Council deadline for Tehran to suspend its nuclear enrichment work. One European diplomat said Annan had wanted to go Tehran for some time on the nuclear issue and the Lebanon war gives him an excuse.
Dujarric said Annan would visit Brussels on Friday for a European foreign ministers meeting on U.N. troop deployment in Lebanon and after that would go to Lebanon and Israel “and also likely Syria and Iran.”
Other stops include the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, Dujarric said.
“The visit to Iran, as to the other places, is to make sure that all those who have an influence in the implementation of 1701 use that influence positively,” Dujarric said.
“The Iranians need to be part of that dialogue,” he added.
