Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Annan accuses Israel over attack on UN post
The UN secretary general Kofi Annan says an Israeli attack on a UN observation post was "apparently deliberate". Four unarmed military observers were killed in the air strike in southern Lebanon.
Israeli radio explains the United Nations secretary anger:
1) Anan implied that this was done on purpose to undermine the efforts to deploy international forces. Israel denies that this attack was on purpose. Analysts explain that Anan is the most experienced polititians in the UN, and that he did not imply what he actually did imply. The explanation is that Anan was extremely extremely extremely angry.
2) The UN observers were injured but not killed. Israel did not stop the fire on that region, which did not allow the UN to rescue the observers. Some of the observers eventually died from their wounds.
3) Anan tried to reach Olmert on the phone ASAP but Olmert was not available.
Israeli Forign Ministry Zippi Llivni said (hearing transcript, not word-by-word) :
The accusation it is unjustified. No Israeli soldier will hurt a UN soldier on purpose. It does not fit the Israeli view of this conflict. The IDF is checking the incident and will report the investigation results. I've already sent our apologies to the UN secretary, Austria FM, Canadian FM. And tomorrow will meet with Finnish FM and Chinese FM.
Update 27-July-2006: New evidence that Hezbollah used the UNTSO post as human shields. Click the link and then the small play button for the interview with retired Canadian major general Lewis Mackenzie.
