UN Secretary General Won't Meet PA's Hamas Leadership
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Israel on Saturday for a three-day official visit, which will include meetings with Israeli and PLO/Hamas Arab Muslim Nazi Authority leaders.
On Saturday, Ki-Moon met with Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Among other pressing issues, the two discussed the efforts to obtain the release of kidnapped IDF soldiers Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Shalit is being held by the Islamist Hamas faction of the PA government, and Regev and Goldwasser are being held by the Lebanese Hizbullah terrorist organization.
Ahead of the Saturday meeting with the UN Secretary General, sources in Defense Minister Peretz's office said that "Shalit's release is a precondition for any diplomatic developments [with the PA]."
Ki-Moon is scheduled to meet with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and other PA leaders in Ramallah on Sunday. However, during a press conference in Cairo on Saturday, the Secretary General announced that he would not meet with PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Addressing reporters following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Ki-Moon said that he expects the new PA unity government to "live up to the expectations of the international community, for the sake of regional peace and security."
Ki-Moon will also meet with the families of missing IDF soldiers. On Monday and Tuesday, Secretary General Ki-Moon is to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Acting President Dalia Itzik and Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres. He will also meet with the families of missing IDF soldiers Guy Hever, Zecharia Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Tzvi Feldman, as well as with the Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev families.
In addition to his many scheduled meetings, Ki-Moon will be given a helicopter tour of the security partition by a senior IDF officer, and will pay his respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
Ki-Moon's official visit to Israel and the PA is part of a regional tour the Secretary General is currently undertaking. He arrived in Israel from Egypt, following meetings in Iraq, and he will be visiting Jordan for talks with the Hashemite monarch and senior Jordanian officials on Tuesday.