UN envoy raises alarm on Middle East

United Nations: UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen raised an "alarm" about the situation in the Middle East, warning that the region faces the possibilities of full-scale war.

"The picture which emerges is very dark, and apparently getting darker," he told reporters on Monday. "So there are reasons for real concerns in the international community."

Roed-Larsen, the current UN envoy for Lebanon-Syria issues who for many years was the top UN Mideast envoy, said "the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East has
changed fundamentally over a few years."

"A few years ago, as it had been over many, many decades, the center of gravity for all the conflicts were the Israeli-Arab conflicts," he said.

"Now, there seems to be four epicenters of conflict in the region with their own dynamics, the Iraqi issues, the Iranian issues, the Syrian-Lebanese issues, and of course the heart of hearts, the traditional conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli issue."

Roed-Larsen called the current situation "alarming" and said there are three alternatives.

"One is that we continue on the path of violence _ the kind of mildest one being that we continue on the slippery slope of violence that we've seen not only in Lebanon but also in Gaza, West Bank, Iraq and elsewhere in the region," he said. "The other one is that it leads to a full confrontation, and worst case to a regional confrontation with arms."

The second option is "energetic diplomacy" by the international community to address the underlying problems, he said.

Roed-Larsen said this is "extremely difficult" today because the four conflicts in the Mideast are separate, but have become entwined.

The third option, he said, is "a vigorous containment policy which stems the slide on the slippery slope" and moves to address "broader regional tensions."