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Asian powers to confront Rice over Israel
KUALA LUMPUR (updated on: July 27, 2006, 14:27 PST): Asian powers planned on Thursday to confront US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over Washington's stance on Israel and the Lebanon conflict at a regional security forum here.
After flying in from Rome, where she conducted a high-stakes Middle East crisis mission, Rice faced a difficult agenda including the North Korean missile crisis and the deteriorating situation in Israel and Lebanon.
Rice had been seeking to seize on the momentum of a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea's recent missile tests to pressure Pyongyang to return to nuclear talks which it has boycotted since November.
But instead she faces anger over the deadly Israeli airstrike on a United Nations post in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed four UN observers including one from China.
Foreign ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday expressed their deep concern over Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN post.
The ministers have said they would raise the attack, and their calls for an immediate cease-fire, with Rice at Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
"The United States, which has the greatest influence on the Israelis, must encourage them to take a decision to stop all these bombings," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Wednesday.
"I think it is very easy to express deep regret after the event has happened, but I think the call by the majority of the international community is that they should stop and cease the bombing of Lebanon."
China, which reacted furiously to the bombing, is pushing for a UN Security Council statement condemning the deaths -- but the United States has rejected any criticism of the Israeli attack.
Beijing kept up the pressure here Thursday, saying that it hoped the United Nations would play a bigger role in the Middle East issue and that the conflict could be resolved through peaceful measures.
"We strongly condemn this, we hope the international community can urge Israel, the Middle East and the relevant parties to go back to the negotiation table as soon as possible," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
"We urge relevant parties, especially Israel, to immediately halt military action. I think others also have responsibility and should co-operate with international intervention efforts," she said.
Rice has denied that Washington had been isolated at the crisis talks in its rejection of an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
"Yes, there were a lot of countries calling for an immediate cease-fire. There were several that did not," she told journalists on board her plane to Malaysia.
"The fields of the Middle East are littered with broken cease-fires," she said. "Every time there is a broken cease-fire, people die and there is destruction and misery."
"Yes, we want to see a cease-fire urgently in this region. Let's create the conditions this time that will make this an end of violence."
Another element in the mix at the Kuala Lumpur talks is the surprise arrival later Thursday of Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Iran is not officially a participant in Friday's meeting, and Iranian diplomats and Malaysian foreign ministry officials declined to say who he would be meeting with here.
"He's coming here to discuss the Middle East," a diplomatic source familiar with his visit told AFP.
In addition to ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the ARF groups Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.
KUALA LUMPUR (updated on: July 27, 2006, 14:27 PST): Asian powers planned on Thursday to confront US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over Washington's stance on Israel and the Lebanon conflict at a regional security forum here.
After flying in from Rome, where she conducted a high-stakes Middle East crisis mission, Rice faced a difficult agenda including the North Korean missile crisis and the deteriorating situation in Israel and Lebanon.
Rice had been seeking to seize on the momentum of a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea's recent missile tests to pressure Pyongyang to return to nuclear talks which it has boycotted since November.
But instead she faces anger over the deadly Israeli airstrike on a United Nations post in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed four UN observers including one from China.
Foreign ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday expressed their deep concern over Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN post.
The ministers have said they would raise the attack, and their calls for an immediate cease-fire, with Rice at Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
"The United States, which has the greatest influence on the Israelis, must encourage them to take a decision to stop all these bombings," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Wednesday.
"I think it is very easy to express deep regret after the event has happened, but I think the call by the majority of the international community is that they should stop and cease the bombing of Lebanon."
China, which reacted furiously to the bombing, is pushing for a UN Security Council statement condemning the deaths -- but the United States has rejected any criticism of the Israeli attack.
Beijing kept up the pressure here Thursday, saying that it hoped the United Nations would play a bigger role in the Middle East issue and that the conflict could be resolved through peaceful measures.
"We strongly condemn this, we hope the international community can urge Israel, the Middle East and the relevant parties to go back to the negotiation table as soon as possible," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
"We urge relevant parties, especially Israel, to immediately halt military action. I think others also have responsibility and should co-operate with international intervention efforts," she said.
Rice has denied that Washington had been isolated at the crisis talks in its rejection of an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
"Yes, there were a lot of countries calling for an immediate cease-fire. There were several that did not," she told journalists on board her plane to Malaysia.
"The fields of the Middle East are littered with broken cease-fires," she said. "Every time there is a broken cease-fire, people die and there is destruction and misery."
"Yes, we want to see a cease-fire urgently in this region. Let's create the conditions this time that will make this an end of violence."
Another element in the mix at the Kuala Lumpur talks is the surprise arrival later Thursday of Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Iran is not officially a participant in Friday's meeting, and Iranian diplomats and Malaysian foreign ministry officials declined to say who he would be meeting with here.
"He's coming here to discuss the Middle East," a diplomatic source familiar with his visit told AFP.
In addition to ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the ARF groups Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.