Annan Says Lebanon Crisis 'Very Worrying,' Warns Mideast Could Explode

by **Admin** Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:08 am

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Lebanon's ongoing political crisis was "very worrying" and the Middle East could explode if the international community doesn't handle the many conflicts in the region very carefully.

Calling the broader Middle East "a very dangerous region," Annan said Thursday at a wide-ranging round-table with journalists in New York that "many conflicts have converged and are feeding off each other, and the international community has to handle that situation very carefully because any miscalculation can lead to very serious explosions."

He said Lebanon's political crisis and inability to elect a new president was "very worrying," adding that it was a bit like the infighting among the Palestinians, which pits the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas against the Islamic militants of Hamas.

He also warned that military action against Iran would be "a real disaster."

Annan said he didn't have enough information to comment on the justification for the U.N. Security Council's demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment until it allays suspicions its nuclear program is trying to produce weapons. Tehran insists the program is peaceful, aimed only at using nuclear power to generate electricity.

Annan said he had told Iranian leaders that "if indeed you have nothing to hide and you are not making a bomb and your intentions are pacific, open your doors, let the inspectors come, let them go anywhere — find a way of reassuring the world, not just the U.S."

Asked how the international community should deal with Iran, he said dialogue was the only way.

"We cannot, I'm sure, take on another military action in Iran, and I hope no one is contemplating it. It would be a real disaster," he told journalists.

Annan also cited the dangers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Sunni-Shiite divide in Iraq and other Mideast countries, and unrest in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

On Darfur, he criticized wealthy nations with well-equipped militaries for refusing to provide essential helicopters for the joint U.N.-African Union force that took over peacekeeping there early this year.

Annan was in New York to receive the first MacArthur Award for International Justice from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.