AMMAN, Jordan, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Jordan King Abdullah stressed at a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan the key role the international organization should play for Middle East peace.
A royal statement said Abdullah told Annan Thursday "peoples of the region are in utmost need at this moment for an effective and pragmatic role by the United Nations to preserve regional stability through dealing with the core of the Muddle East conflict, notably finding a just settlement for the Palestinian cause."
Annan who arrived in Jordan Wednesday on the third leg of a Middle East tour, after Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories, is seeking regional support to guarantee the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a month-long Israeli offensive on Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Annan is to travel to Damascus later Thursday for talks with Syrian officials on their part in helping implement 1701. Annan is expected to ask the Syrians to tighten control of their border with Lebanon to quell smuggling of arms to Hezbollah.
The statement said Abdullah urged international assistance for Lebanon to surmount the impact of the Israeli war, "stressing the priority of consolidating ceasefire and speeding up the deployment of UN peacekeepers to stabilize the Lebanese-Israeli border."
Abdullah also called for lifting Israel's sea and air blockade on Lebanon which he said "is condemned and unacceptable."
Israel linked lifting the sea and air blockade it has been imposing on Lebanon since July 12 to the release of the soldiers and the deployment of the enlarged UN Peacekeeping Force in south Lebanon (UNIFIL) whose number is to be increased to 15,000 troops, to back 15,000 Lebanese soldiers in imposing legitimate control over the south and along the border with Israel.
