US, UN, the EU and Russia urge Israel to halt its operations against the Palestinians
Palestine-International, Politics, 4/11/2002

The United Nations, the European Union, the US and Russia have stressed the need of the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the Palestinian cities and to halt its aggressive operations against the Palestinians and in the region.

This was expressed in a joint statement issued following a meeting held by the Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar as a representative for the European Union, the secretary general of the UN Kofi Annan; the US secretary of state Collin Powell and the Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov.

The statement which Annan read in a press conference said: " we call on Israel to halt its operations, for an immediate and effective cease fire and the immediate Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian cities including Ramullah especially the headquarters of the Palestinian authority, and to implement UN security council resolutions concerned."

The statement called on the Palestinian authority to exert efforts in order to control the situation.

Powell repeated his call on the Israeli army to halt its aggressions at the Palestinian territories, noting that violence in all its forms only brings adverse results for the peace efforts in the region and diverts the attention from seeing two states living peacefully side by side, but Powell stressed that the four- member meeting did not discuss imposing sanctions on Israel, while Annan and the foreign minister of each of Russia, the US and Spain agreed to co-ordinate work altogether in order to find out a solution for the situation in the region.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the European Union welcomed the statement issued by the four- member meeting in Madrid, especially its assertion on the humanitarian issues and the need of finding out an outlet for the catastrophic situation of the Palestinians as a result of the Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territories.

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