UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, headed for Israel Monday in a hastily arranged bid to defuse the wave of violence in the region and put the peace process back on track.
Annan was expected to arrive in Tel Aviv late Monday, within hours of the expiry of an ultimatum by Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.
Barak sent troop reinforcements to the Lebanese border Sunday, and renewed an ultimatum to the Palestinians to halt the current wave of violence, provoking a flurry of diplomatic activity throughout the region.
"If in the next two days we do not see a... cessation of violence we will consider this a deliberate decision by the Palestinian Authority to stop negotiations, and we will instruct Israeli defense forces to act accordingly," Barak said.
His deadline was Monday night, the end of the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.
Annan spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the UN leader hoped to meet Barak and Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, as well as other leaders in the region whom he did not specify.
He was undertaking the trip "in view of the increasingly precarious situation in the Middle East, which carries the risk of a major conflagration," Eckhard said.
US President, Bill Clinton, is also considering traveling to the Middle East this week for a summit with Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders, a US official said in Washington.
Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Clinton would attend the summit, hosted by the Egyptians in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, according to CNN.
The international moves followed an eruption of cross-border fighting and the abduction Saturday by the Hizbollah movement of three Israeli soldiers.
Barak has warned that Israel will hold Syria responsible for the well-being of the three Israelis, while Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Ephraim Sneh, said Syria will be "the address of our response" if border violence persisted.
Despite Barak's ultimatum, the Palestinians and the Syrians -- who effectively control Lebanon -- were in defiant mood.
"The Israeli threats do not scare us. Israel is the one responsible for the ongoing escalation," Arafat's top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told AFP in Gaza.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
