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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: August 8, 2006 |
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Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier left Tuesday on a three-day trip to the Mideast to urge all sides to accept a draft U.N. resolution that aims to end nearly four weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Steinmeier planned to meet Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri in Lebanon later Tuesday before traveling to Israel Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the foreign and defense ministers.
"There is a real chance to reach a really necessary cease fire in the Middle East," Steinmeier told reports in Berlin before he left.
He said the agreement regarding the draft U.N. resolution was an important step.
"Now we seem to have agreement among the members of the Security Council," Steinmeier said. "Acceptance (of the draft) in the region is now needed, and that is the reason for my trip to the Middle East."
Arab foreign ministers said Monday the draft resolution was tilted in favor of Israel and did not "take Lebanon's interest and stability into account" and demanded major changes be made, including an immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.
They sent the foreign ministers from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to New York to plead Lebanon's case.
Berlin has avoided directly criticizing Israel since fighting erupted, repeatedly underscoring the Jewish state's right to exist and its right to self-defense. It has called for a cease-fire "as quickly as possible" rather than immediately.
At the same time, Germany has been trying to draw Syria -- a key supporter of the Hezbollah militants, whose July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers sparked the fighting -- into efforts to defuse the crisis.
On Thursday, Steinmeier is to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. |
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