Egypt welcomes stance of Annan towards Palestinian issue

Egypt's Permanent Delegate to the UN welcomed statement released by the UN Chief of Wednesday on the situation in the occupied Palestinian land.

Ambassador Ahmed Abul-Gheit said that Kofi Annan's statement reflected understanding of the need to control the situation in the Palestinian land.

He said that what is required now is the activation of the UN role with the aim of calming the situation down. "This could be achieved through active and intensive contacts by the UN Chief directly with parties involved and also through Israel's acceptance of the Egyptian-Jordanian ideas," he added.

"Dialogue should be resumed within the framework of what has been achieved in previous rounds of the negotiations between the two parties, the last of which was the understanding reached in Taba talks," he said.

In statement released Wednesday a spokesman for the UN said that Annan is closely watching mounting Israeli-Palestinian violence and is deeply concerned that the situation will slip out of control.

The spokesman said that Annan is convinced that resumption of political negotiations will end the crisis.

"Annan stressed the need to take a number of confidence building measures and resumption of security cooperation," he added.

"The UN Chief underlined the necessity of halting all forms of violence and the full implementation of Sharm El-sheikh understandings reached last October," the statement said.

It added that Annan had demanded Israel to put an end to its blockade of Palestinian territories and to transfer all funds owed to Palestinian Authority.