Analysis: The worrying Mideast situation

UNITED NATIONS, June 20 (UPI) -- Michael Williams, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's newly appointed special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, has delivered his first assessment -- a grim one -- of the situation to the U.N. Security Council on the heels of the breakup of the Palestinian National Unity government.

Williams told council members the unity government's demise and the declaration of a state of emergency by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have created new political realities and worrying conditions across the occupied Palestinian territory. The envoy also said renewed violence has threatened the stability of Lebanon and that Israel has faced fresh rocket attacks on its northern front.

"The region as a whole is highly volatile and unstable, overshadowing efforts to make political progress," he said, describing Hamas' wrenching of control from Fatah in the Gaza Strip as "well planned and executed."

Williams condemned "the brutal violence ... and the attacks on the legitimate institutions of Abbas and the PA government" as totally unacceptable and said the secretary-general regretted the failure of the National Unity government.

"The violence of the past week shows very, very deep and ideological divisions between Fatah and Hamas," he later told reporters.

"Despite what has happened, Gaza and the West Bank remain one Palestinian territory, legally administered by one PA headed by President Abbas, who has appointed an emergency government led by Prime Minister (Salam) Fayyad," he said to the council.

The new special coordinator said it was vital Israel and the international community immediately delivers political and financial support to Abbas and the Palestinian government, including releasing all previously withheld Palestinian customs and tax revenue.

"What is also needed is action on previous Israeli commitments, including the evacuation of settlement outposts, removal of roadblocks and checkpoints and release of prisoners. Equally, Fatah and the PA should act on previous commitments, not only to end violence, but to thoroughly reform its institutions."

The United Nations' most immediate humanitarian concern is to reopen the crossings between Israel and Gaza for commercial and humanitarian imports, the envoy told the council, especially as the situation in Gaza has stabilized and food and medical shortages there have mounted.

Outside the Security Council's formal chamber, Williams told reporters the violence of the past week was "appalling and it has led to a political rupture within the Palestinian community and a rupture which has been compounded by the territorial division which now de facto exists. It will be difficult moving forward and I don't expect that to be done easily and swiftly."

But he praised Abbas for having "moved decisively in forming an emergency government." The envoy called the new prime minister, Fayyad, "a man of great integrity and of international credibility" and said appointing the new government has sent his own signal.

"It's a government, you know, of essentially technocrats," Williams said. "I think there is only one Fatah minister in the government and it is a government also which interestingly includes several prominent Gazans, is a very clear signal to the people of Gaza they have certainly not been forgotten at this moment."

He welcomed Israel's move Wednesday morning to allow people seeking urgent medical care to cross from Gaza.

"We are concerned about Gaza and first and foremost at the moment the humanitarian situation," he said outside the Security Council chamber. "The situation is difficult, perhaps serious in some regards, but is not critical at the moment."

"With regard to Erez (crossing) we are worried by a considerable number of people who are caught there, including quite a number of children and police have said this (Wednesday) morning the Israeli authorities allowed through quite a number of people who needed urgent medical care and attention," he said.

On Lebanon, Williams expressed concern about last week's assassination of the lawmaker Walid Eido and nine others in a Beirut bombing, and the continuing violence between the Lebanese Armed Forces and Fatah al-Islam gunmen at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country.

He also pointed out two Katyusha rockets were fired Sunday from southern Lebanon at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, causing minor damage but no casualties, and called it "a most serious violation" of the Security Council resolution ending last year's war between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah.