2006年VOA标准英语-UN Says Israel Shelled Lebanese Post Despite Pl
时间：2007-04-13 03:24:51
搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。
（单词翻译）
By Peter Heinlein
United Nations
27 July 2006
U.N. officials say they asked Israel to stop shelling a military outpost in Lebanon hours before it was destroyed, killing1 four U.N. observers. Israel denies it deliberately2 targeted the post.
--------
Photo released by United Nations Interim3 Force in Lebanon, shows U.N. observation post that was damaged after Israeli air strike, Tuesday
Senior U.N. officials say they contacted Israeli authorities more than 10 times to plead for a halt to the shelling of a U.N. observer post Tuesday, in the hours before the post was destroyed by Israeli shell fire. Four U.N. military observers were killed in the incident, one each from China, Austria, Finland and Canada.
One senior official, briefing reporters on background, said Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jane Holl Lute4 telephoned Israel's ambassador to the United Nations several times to enlist5 his help in having the shelling stopped.
They said the ambassador, Dan Gillerman, expressed concern and assured them that the U.N. was not a target. A spokeswoman for the Israeli U.N. mission confirmed the account for VOA.
China Wednesday asked Israel to apologize for the attack. The Chinese U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said the incident was 'inexcusable'.
Wang Guangya talks to the press during Security Council consultations6, Wednesday
"For China and for others, we condemn7 this,"the ambassador said. "Because I think any attack on the United Nations positions and United Nations personnel is inexcusable and unacceptable".
Secretary-General Kofi Annan initially8 issued a statement Wednesday calling the attack 'an apparently9 deliberate action'. He later told a news conference in Rome he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who expressed 'deep sorrow' for the incident. He said Mr. Olmert 'definitely believes it was a mistake'. Israel's defense10 ministry11 described the incident as an accident.
Briefing a closed door Security Council meeting Wednesday, Assistant Secretary-General Lute described a virtual barrage12 of missile and artillery13 fire around the observer mission in the hours before the fatal strike. She displayed pictures of the outpost to show it was well marked as a U.N. facility, and said that unlike other areas, there had been no firing by Hezbollah units in the area.
China asked the Security Council Wednesday to issue a statement condemning14 the attack. But diplomats15 say the approval of the statement was bogged16 down in disputes over wording.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said Washington would object to any attempt to politicize the incident.
John Bolton talks to the press during Security Council consultations, Wednesday
"The objective of United States here is to make an appropriate statement in a very timely fashion about the deaths of the four UNIFIL observers and not to make this statement a backdoor way of getting into ceasefire or other larger political and military questions," he noted17. "That's not appropriate here."
A White House spokesman Wednesday said Israel should be taken at its word that the air strike was an accident. The spokesman also said it is important to find out what went wrong and to ensure it never happens again.
分享到：
收听单词发音 
