Mideast anger: humanitarian chief ‘has never seen nations as polarised’

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland warned yesterday that the anger on all sides in the Middle East is the greatest he has seen in two decades of trying to help the troubled region make peace.

“I’ve never seen nations as polarised as during this recent visit,” said Mr Egeland, who was in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip at the end of July.

“People were enraged collectively in Lebanon, everybody against the Israeli indiscriminate onslaught. In Israel, they were a united front to support the strong military measures. In the Palestinian areas, I’ve never seen them as full of hatred collectively as now. It has to be defused.”

He said he was counting on the Security Council to pass a resolution that will stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and serve as a first step to concluding a peace settlement in the Middle East.

“Everybody wants now to find a permanent political solution. This has become a powder keg.”

He said the fighting in Lebanon could be stopped immediately if there is the will because it isn’t protracted and there are only two parties, not 20 as in Sudan’s Darfur region.

But he said the UN must produce a resolution that will be respected: “There has to be some teeth in it and there has to be pressure on the parties to respect it.”