U.N. Security Council Holds Emergency Session After Israeli Air Strike
Posted July 30, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Secretary General Kofi Annan acknowledged the U.N.’s failure to take firm action to end the crisis and repeated his calls for a ceasefire.
Annan condemned the Israeli attack and said he was “deeply disturbed” that his previous calls for an end to the violence have gone unheeded and stressed the importance of strong U.N. action to prevent any more civilian casualties.
“We meet at a moment of extreme gravity first and foremost for the people of the Middle East but also for the authority of this organization and especially this council,” he said. “Action is needed now before many more children, women and men become casualties of a conflict over which they have no control.”
The Security Council’s hands have been tied on this issue as the United States has refused to support Annan’s call for an immediate ceasefire.
Annan said the Council is undermining its own authority if it doesn’t take a strong stand immediately – a point highlighted by the riot outside a U.N. building in Beirut Sunday, he said.
“People have noticed its failure to act firmly and quickly during this crisis,” Annan noted.
Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahoud accused Israel of committing war crimes and criticized the Council for its inaction.
“Israel is committing atrocities against humanity,” he charged. “The fact that such massacres are yet … to be taken up by resolutions of this august council — that fact does not mean that the truth is to remain hidden.”
Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman apologized for Sunday’s deadly attack, but said his country’s actions can’t be compared to those of Hezbollah, which intentionally targets Israeli civilians and uses Lebanese citizens as human shields.
“Those people including women and children who were killed in this horrible tragic incident may have been killed by Israeli fire but they are the victims of the Hezbollah,” he said.
