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Annan attends Middle East summit amid mood of "grim determination"
16 October - After conferring with the key players gathered in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the Middle East summit, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today attended the plenary meeting of the latest international effort to bring the crisis under control.

The plenary, which got under way at 1:00 p.m., was co-chaired by United States President Bill Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who made remarks before the meeting adjourned. The Secretary-General was among the five other principals who attended the session, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Javier Solana, the European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy.

President Mubarak then hosted a lunch for the principals, after which they were scheduled to meet with each other in a series of bilateral encounters while the foreign ministers continued their discussions in a separate session. The Secretary-General then returned to his hotel, leaving behind his Special Envoy, Terje Roed Larsen, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, to attend the ministerial meeting and maintain contact with the parties.

Prior to the summit plenary, Mr. Annan held a series of meetings with the attending leaders to discuss the talks. In the morning, he met with Prime Minister Barak who briefed the Secretary-General on Israel's position at the opening of the talks. The Secretary-General then conferred with Mr. Solana and exchanged ideas for the summit with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

Just before the opening of the plenary, Mr. Annan met with President Clinton to discuss the objectives of the talks and plans for a fact-finding inquiry into the events of the past weeks and the way ahead, according to a UN spokesman.

The spokesman described the mood of the summit as "grim determination" which he said was "summed up by President Clinton who echoed comments made by the Secretary-General saying, 'we cannot afford to fail.'"