• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

---

Security Council hears from Palestinian Authority President, Israeli Ambassador
10 November -- The Security Council today held "constructive" discussions in separate meetings with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, according to official communiqués issued by the Council.

The two men addressed the 15-member Security Council in consecutive private meetings convened to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

Speaking to the press following the meetings, Palestinian representative Marwan Jilani said President Arafat had briefed the Council "on the developments on the ground and the recent escalation of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian civilians." President Arafat had reiterated the request for a UN protection force in the occupied territories, Mr. Jilani said.

"The way we see it is that we think this protection force will help in de-escalating the violence, in protecting Palestinian civilians, and that this protection force will not be deployed along any specific boundaries or separation lines, but it would be a mobile force that is able to go to areas of contention and hostilities throughout the occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem," he added.

Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry told the press that his country was "strongly opposing" any kind of international involvement. "We have been - with our Palestinian partners - committed to a bilateral, direct peace process, and we would like not to spend and not to waste too much energy in a process which will run against the peace spirit, so I expressed very clearly our opposition," he said.

"What we need now is not an international presence, which really can run against the spirit of the peace process and divert the investment that we have invested during seven years," Ambassador Lancry stressed. "We need a direct approach with the Palestinian partners in order to bring back calm and security and to resume the peace talks."