UN Chief in Iran to discuss, Lebanon, nuke row
TEHRAN—U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan held talks in Iran on Saturday
to seek help in shoring up a Hizbollah- Israel ceasefire and other
issues that diplomats said would include Iran's nuclear standoff with
the West.
Annan arrived in the Iranian capital two days after the U.N. nuclear
watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported Tehran
had failed to meet the U.N. Security Council's August 31 deadline to
halt uranium enrichment.
"I am here to discuss implementation of resolution 1701, which deals
with the situation in Lebanon, and I will also discuss issues of concern
in this region to the international community," Annan told reporters
shortly before heading into talks with Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki.
Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for Annan who has been on a week-long Middle
East trip to bolster the Hizbollah-Israel truce, earlier told Reuters:
"Certainly the issue of the (Iranian) nuclear programme will be
visited."
Iran is one of the main backers of the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla
group, and Annan is expected to urge a commitment to a ban on exporting
arms to the guerillas as demanded by the U.N. Security Council
resolution that ushered in the August 14 truce.
Annan may also seek to enlist Iran's help in securing the release of two
Israeli soldiers seized on July 12 in a cross-border raid by Hizbollah.
That raid sparked the war that killed more than 1,300 people, mostly
Lebanese civilians.
Although Iran funded and armed Hizbollah in the 1980s, it now says its
support is primarily moral and political. But analysts say Hizbollah is
equipped with Iranian arms and used them in the 34-day war against
Israel.
Annan has already visited Lebanon, Israel, Syria, another Hizbollah
ally, and Qatar, the only Arab state currently with a seat on the U.N.
Security Council. In Damascus, Annan said Syria promised to enforce the
arms embargo on Hizbollah.
Before Annan began his tour, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "It
is clear that Iran has an influence on certain parts of Lebanese
society, and we would hope to use that influence positively."
As well as the foreign minister, Annan is due to meet the secretary of
Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, on Saturday and
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday.
Analysts say Iran may have been emboldened in its nuclear standoff by
the Lebanon conflict, which Tehran declared a victory for Hizbollah.
Iran insists its atomic plans are civilian but the West says it wants to
build nuclear bombs.
More than 250 Italian troops from an advance party of 800 landed in the
south Lebanese port of Tyre on Saturday. They form part of U.N. plans to
increase the existing 2,000 peacekeepers in Lebanon to 15,000 to help
enforce the ceasefire.
Italy has pledged to send 3,000, which will be the biggest contingent in
the new U.N. force, known as UNIFIL II.
Annan has said Israeli forces who moved into south Lebanon during the
war with Hizbollah should withdraw fully as soon as 5,000 U.N. troops
have arrived.
The French commander of UNIFIL, Major-General Alain Pellegrini, told
reporters in Tyre he expected to have the 5,000 troops on the ground
within two weeks and said the expanded force would have greater powers
to enforce the truce.
"Everyone should forget about the old UNIFIL. The previous UNIFIL is
dead. The new one is strengthened and has stronger rules of engagement,"
he said.
The truce has so far held with few violations other than flights over
Lebanon by Israeli planes, defying widespread expectations of
intermittent violence.
Last November, Annan canceled a trip to Tehran in response to a call by
Ahmadinejad that Israel "be wiped off the map." A U.N. official said
Annan last visited Iran in 2002. Ahmadinejad was elected president last
year.
The American Jewish Committee has urged Annan to speak out against
Iran's Holocaust cartoon exhibition when in Tehran. An Iranian newspaper
launched the competition in retaliation for last year's publication of
caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish and other European
newspapers.
Annan will return to Doha from Tehran for talks with Qatari officials
about implementation of the Security Council resolution to cement the
Hizbollah-Israel truce.—Agencies |
