Vienna, August 29: It is “crucial” for Palestinians to show unity in order to proceed with negotiations with Israel, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in Vienna Friday for the 30th anniversary of the city as a UN seat along with New York, Geneva and Nairobi.
Ban said he was encouraged by recent developments in the Middle East, including the election of a national unity government in Lebanon and the reconciliation of a number of countries with Syria.
“It would be crucially important that the Palestinian people should be united among themselves and should be able to carry on this negotiation,” the Secretary General said.
Talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped following a change of government in Israel in March.
Power in the Palestinian territories is split between the Fatah movement, and the rival Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip.
Ban said the Arab Peace initiative offering Arab recognition of Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied by Israel remained a “cornerstone” for a Middle East peace settlement.
But he stressed that direct Israeli-Palestinian talks were also vital.
In recent days media reports have suggested that the Israeli government is offering the United States a partial and temporary freeze on existing settlement projects in Palestinian areas in return for a commitment on forcing new sanctions against Iran.
The US has been at the forefront of efforts to get Israel to stop its such construction.
“I hope that we will see some positive results coming from the American administration’s direct engagement” in Mideast peace efforts, Ban said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday met Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin and called on Israel to substantially change its settlement policy.
Ban spoke to reporters in Vienna after a ceremony marking the anniversary of the UN centre’s inauguration.
“When this centre was was opened in 1979, it was a bridge between East and West during the Cold War,” the South Korean UN chief said. “Now it is a 21st-century hub for addressing human security issues at the heart of a united Europe.”
Among other bodies, Vienna hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the UN Industrial Development Organization.
Ban Ki-Moon is scheduled to be in Norway next week for a first- hand look at the damage caused by global warming to the Arctic Ocean.
Reaching a global climate agreement at the upcoming international conference in Copenhagen in December is “absolutely crucial and important for the future of our humanity and of our planet Earth,” he said.
–Agencies