U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Monday he would appoint a mediator for indirect talks between Israel and Heabollah on the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers, the first public word of negotiations between the bitter enemies since fighting in Lebanon ended. The announcement raised the possibility of a prisoner swap to win the soldiers' release, which Israel has repeatedly rejected, at least in public. Until now, Israel had insisted that it would not hold any contacts with Hezbollah on the issue. The agreement on the mediation effort was a major boost to Annan's efforts to strengthen the fragile 3-week-old ceasefire that ended 34 days of Israeli-Hezbollah fighting. Israel launched a massive offensive in Lebanon after the Shiite guerrillas snatched the two soldiers in a cross-border raid.
| “'The only thing that I insisted on is that if I'm going to use my good offices, then my mediator should be the only mediator,' he said...” |
"The only thing that I insisted on is that if I'm going to use my good offices, then my mediator should be the only mediator," he said. "There must be one mediator and effective channel of communication."