UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to leave for the Middle East late Sunday in hopes to help end violence in the region and put the peace process back on track, his spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
In a statement, Eckhard said Annan will arrive in Tel Aviv late Monday and is expected to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"He also plans to meet other leaders in the region," Eckhard said, without providing any schedule or other details.
Annan was expected to make a stopover in Geneva, Switzerland, early Monday before heading for the Middle East, according to UN officials.
The spokesman said the UN secretary general was undertaking the trip "in view of the increasingly precarious situation in the Middle East, which carries the risk of a major conflagration."
The mission comes ahead an Israeli-imposed deadline for Palestinians to end violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or face the full force or the Israeli army.
Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces have left more than 90 people dead in less than two weeks.
On Saturday, the UN Security Council by a vote of 14-0 adopted a resolution condemning "the excessive use of force" against Palestinians. The United States abstained from the vote.
Eckhard said Annan has been in constant contact with regional leaders and other concerned heads of government in recent days "to explore urgent means of ending the violence and bringing the Middle East peace process back on track."
In making a decision to travel personally to the Middle East, Annan concluded that it was "imperative that he makes every possible effort to break the prevailing impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," the spokesman pointed out.
But Eckhard made clear that Annan was leaving UN headquarters without any guarantee of success.
"The Secretary-General is fully aware that this will be a difficult mission, the outcome of which is uncertain," he stressed -- UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
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