The United Nations plans to establish a command centre in Cyprus for peace keepers to serve in Lebanon, Foreign Minister George Lillykas said Thursday.
The Cypriot official said prior to his departure on board a French military helicopter to Beirut that the UN centre would “facilitate the transfer of its personnel to Lebanon.”
Lillykas accepted Prime Minister Fuad Siniora’s invitation to visit the Lebanese capital where he had scheduled meetings with his Lebanese counterpart Faazi Salloukh, the Orthodox Bishop of Beirut Elias Audi and other officials.
Soon after his arrival in Beirut the Cypriot minister, accompanied by ambassador Kyriakos Kouros who was posted a few days prior to the start of the conflict, visited the Dahyeh region in southern Beirut, which has suffered extensive damage due to the Israeli bombardment.
The Israeli’s maintained that the area was s stronghold of the Hizbollah guerrillas.
“The images we saw are images of a biblical disaster and cause great pain. I wonder why there had to be so much destruction, which led to the death of so many people,” he added, noting that such sights call for the necessity to settle disputes through peaceful means and not through violence.
Lillykas’ discussions with Siniora and Salloukh focused on “the help or the fields in which Cyprus can continue to contribute for the transport of the peacekeeping force to Lebanon and of humanitarian aid via Cyprus.”
“The UN have decided to set up in Cyprus the administrative headquarters of the peacekeeping force for the transport of the force to Lebanon,” he told Cypriot and Lebanese reporters.
Lillykas said that the government will work with the UN to set up the necessary infrastructure, in collaboration with UN peace keeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and noted that “we have developed various ideas on how we can help the reconstruction of Lebanon, which we will discuss on the ground.”
Cyprus has been a safe haven for tens of thousands of foreign nationals and Lebanese people who fled the war-ravaged country during the recent fighting and continues to provide facilities at its ports and airports to help send the UN and European Union humanitarian aid to the neighbouring country.
Meanwhile, it was announced in New York earlier on Thursday that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is expected to visit the area within the next few days in order to uphold the need for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
The UN chief is expected to visit Israel and Lebanon, as well as Syria and Iran, prior to the August 31 deadline imposed on Tehran by the Security Council to freeze its uranium enrichment programme.
Annan is expected in Brussels on Friday where he will discuss the deployment of UN peace keepers with EU foreign ministers.
The Secretary General is also expected to conclude his Middle East tour after visiting the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey.
Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyiannis also embarked on a Middle East tour on Wednesday to include Lebanon, Syria and Israel prior to Greece taking up the presidency of the UN Security Council on September 1.
