United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met yesterday with the French and American representatives to the organization, to push them to agree on a resolution to violence in the Middle East, Annan's spokesman said. Annan met with French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere and U.S. ambassador John Bolton earlier Thursday, said spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Annan “reiterates his call that the fighting must stop to save civilians on both sides from the nightmare they have endured for he past four weeks,” Dujarric said. Meanwhile, the Israeli government announced they would delay an expansion of their ground offensive in southern Lebanon. The Israeli cabinet had earlier approved the deployment of 15,000 troops in the areas. The permanent members of the Security Council - the United Kingdom, United States, China, France and Russia - also met Thursday morning. Ambassadors from the five countries, all of which have the power to veto resolutions, appeared to achieve little. Bolton told reporters after the meeting that a resolution “was not impossible” at this stage. Despite the failure to move forward, Dujarric said Annan remains optimistic. “The Secretary-General believes that it ought to be possible for the Security Council to adopt a resolution by the end of the week,” he said. French sources said the permanent five members are waiting for a response from the Lebanese government to changes recently made to the text of a draft resolution made public last week. That resolution called for Hezbollah to stop all military activity, but allowed Israeli forces to remain in Lebanon, and take action they deemed “defensive.” Lebanon's cabinet has rejected the draft's language. More diplomatic activity is scheduled this afternoon, including a Chinese-Russian meeting, followed by a U.S.-French meeting at the Qatari mission. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of United Arab Emirates and Qatar will attend both meetings. The permanent members of the Security Council are also scheduled to meet again in the evening.
