UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
צילום: רויטרס
Knesset speaker meets UN secretary general
Knesset speaker Itzik urges UN's Ban to work for release of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah last summer
WASHINGTON - Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday in New York for talks that focused on the fate of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers and the peace process with the Palestinians.
Mr. Ban vowed to do his best to secure the release of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser who were kidnapped by Hizbullah last summer.
The families of the two soldiers on Wednesday met with the UN secretary general who expressed his high regards for their campaign to free their sons.
The soldiers' kidnapping by Hizbullah gunmen in a cross-border attack set off a 34-day confrontation with Israel.
The secretary general also said that the United Nations was committed to the full implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which ended the fighting between Israel and Hizbullah. One of the resolution's clauses stipulated that the two Israeli soldiers should be released unconditionally.
Itzik invited Mr. Ban to visit Israel and hoped that the world body's treatment of the Jewish state would improve under his tenure.
The Hamas government
On the Palestinian front, Mr. Ban said the Hamas government should accept the three demands set by the international community as conditions for lifting an aid embargo imposed on the Palestinian Authority last year.The Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, comprising the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union, demanded that Hamas recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts past agreements.
A crippling aid embargo has been imposed on the Hamas-led government since January 2006, when the Islamic group won the general elections.
Itzik warned against lifting the embargo before the demands are met, charging that such move would discourage Hamas to budge from its hard-line stance.
Over 1,000 people held a rally on Washington's Capitol Hill on Tuesday in support of the kidnapped soldiers and their families.
A top UN envoy discussed the fate of the soldiers with Hizbullah officials in Lebanon on Wednesday.
