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Annan Calls for Halt to Mideast Fighting
"No Hitting."
Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday for an immediate halt to the violence between Israel and Lebanon, saying a cease-fire would be the first step toward ending the escalating war. Israel, backed by the U.S., immediately dismissed calls for a cease-fire and said the military operation _ which was undertaken to free two captured Israeli soldiers but has spread to target all of Hezbollah _ will "take as long as it will take."

"When you operate on a cancerous growth you do not stop in the middle, sew the patient up and tell him keep living with that growth until it kills you," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said. "You make sure it is totally removed."

Annan went before the council shortly after the return of a three-man U.N. team that met with leaders throughout the region. The team, led by Annan's special political adviser, Vijay Nambiar, came back with a list of proposals to quell the conflict. Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a private two-hour dinner Thursday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, ahead of a planned Rice trip to the Middle East. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana had been expected to attend the dinner, but he was still in the region.
Posted by: Fred 2006-07-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=160275