The U.N. says the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire is holding ... some Lebanese disagree... And there's there's this in diplomacy news:
The US is trying to block attempts by Arab countries to turn the UN Security Council into a key player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the upcoming General Assembly opening next week.
In discussions among Israeli and US officials over the past few days, it was agreed that the US will use its diplomatic power to sideline the Arab League initiative, which intends to use the Security Council as the main vehicle for convening an international peace conference to deal with the conflict.
Instead, US diplomats are working to convince the Arab members of the UN to agree to a presidential statement instead of a UN resolution. The wording of such a statement is now in the works and it will be finalized in a meeting of the Quartet next Wednesday, a day before the Security Council takes on the issue.
US President George W. Bush, who will address the UN General Assembly next week, is expected to repeat in his speech the US commitment for the idea of a two-state solution for the Middle East conflict.
The issue of the new Arab initiative was raised in discussions Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had in Washington with Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. After the meetings, Livni said that "there is a kind of over-activity lately," referring to the Arab call for an international conference sponsored by the UN. "Israel is not going to cooperate with this kind of a process because this is not the right way to move forward," she added.
Rice stressed on Wednesday, at a joint press conference with Livni, that the US insisted the new Palestinian national unity government live up to the three conditions of the international community before it could be considered a legitimate partner - recognizing Israel's right to exist, renouncing terrorism and accepting previous agreements signed with Israel.
"Iraq has really caused a problem, It has radicalised the region," Annan said. "America is in a situation now where it cannot stay, and it cannot leave. Some argue that its presence is a problem, the other side, that if it leaves the situation will get much worse ... So whatever the US has to do, the timing of any withdrawal must be optimal, in the sense that it will do least harm, and will not trigger disintegration of Iraq, when the region and the world will blame the US."
Meanwhile, Israel has taken responsibility for the bombing in Lebanon that killed four U.N. workers.
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Tell a friend
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'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
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sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
