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UN chief wants monitors for Gaza cease-fire
By EDITH M. LEDERER,Associated Press Writer AP - Saturday, January 3
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging key world leaders to intensify efforts to achieve an immediate Israeli-Hamas cease-fire that includes international monitors to enforce a truce and possibly to protect Palestinian civilians, a U.N. official said Friday.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several Arab foreign ministers are flying to New York over the weekend to urge the U.N. Security Council to adopt an Arab draft resolution that would condemn Israel and demand a halt to its bombing campaign in Gaza. But the United States said the draft is "unacceptable" and "unbalanced" because it makes no mention of halting the Hamas rocketing of southern Israel which led to the Israeli offensive.
Experts from the 15 Security Council nations discussed the Arab draft Friday, and it is expected to be at the heart of U.N. discussions starting Monday.
Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told reporters via video link from Jerusalem that a comprehensive solution requires commitments from the parties that they will respect a cease-fire "in full," the monitoring of a truce, the permanent opening of all border crossings into Gaza, the return of Hamas-ruled Gaza to the fold of the Palestinian Authority, renewed efforts to reunite Gaza and the West Bank _ and ultimately the achievement of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The United Nations, which is now the only major international player left in Gaza, is willing to play a monitoring role, he said, but it's up to the council to decide on any monitoring arrangements. The U.N. currently has peacekeeping operations monitoring cease-fires on the Israeli-Lebanon border and on the Israeli-Syrian border.
Serry stressed that opening Gaza's borders "on a continuous and uninterrupted basis ... would require commitments from Hamas that all rocket attacks and weapons smuggling will end."
Serry was also asked about a call in the Arab draft resolution for "the immediate provision of protection for the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip."
"There are proposals ... that apart from a monitoring role that a force could have a protection role," Serry said. "I think all these proposals will have to be examined..."
With the Israeli bombing campaign in its seventh day, Serry said the toll of dead and injured continues to mount and "much of Gaza's infrastructure has now been destroyed."
"The secretary-general is doing everything he can to ensure that efforts are intensified and coordinated and lead to immediate results," Serry said. "He has publicly and privately urged key world leaders with real influence over the parties to end the violence."
___
Associated Press Writer Carley Petesch contributed to this report from the United Nations.
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