S/PV.2376 Security Council

Members of the Council will have received my report relating to resolution 509 (1982), which contains the replies of the Governments of Israel, Lebanon and the PLO. Provisional agenda (SlAgendaI2376) 5. Information received from the area indicates that extensive hostilities are still in progress. 1. Adoption of the agenda 6. On the coastal road, after three days of intensive fighting, including ground and naval artillery fire as well as air strikes, fires have broken out in several parts of Tyre town and there is extensive damage. Inhabitants had earlier evacuated the town, most of them seeking refuge on the beach. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has dispatched ambulances and doctors to the area. The International Committee of the Red Cross has requested UNIFIL to try and send food, water and medical supplies, Attempts are being made to assist to this effect. 2. The situation in the Middle East: Letter dated 4 June 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (5115162) Adoption of the agenda The situation in the Middle East: Letter dated 4 June 1982 from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/15162) ‘7. In the central sector, logistical support units have joined the Israeli forces near Nabatiyah. 8. In the eastern sector, after partially destroying the Nepalese position, blocking access to the Khardala bridge, more than 100 tanks of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have gone through in an overwhelming use of force.

In accordance with decisions taken at previous meetings [237&/l and 2375th mretings], I invite the representatives of Lebanon and lsrael to take a place at the Council table. I invite the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to take a place at the Council table. I invite the representative of Egypt to take the place reserved for him at the side of the Council Chamber. 9. Throughout the night of 7/8 June, heavy clashes, as well as artillery exchanges, were observed in the vicinity of Hasbaya. In this area alone, Israeli forces are estimated to exceed two mechanized brigades. It has been reported that intensive military activity also continues north of the Litani, including air strikes in a number of locations. In a further serious development this morning, there were two air strikes by I Syrian aircraft in the vicinity of Dibil and Deir Mimess, both in the enclave. 10. In the UNIFIL area itself, despite the difficult, dangerous and provocative situation at present prevailing, UNIFIL troops and United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) observers have remained in all their positions. They were instructed to block advancing forces, take defence measures

Members of the Council have before them document S/15 178, which contains the Secretary-General’s I I 1, In the morning of 6 June, Dutch soldiers planted obstacles before advancing Israeli tank columns. One Israeli tank was damaged. The obstacles however were pushed aside as was the Dutch guard house. Tank barrels were pointed at the UNIFIL soldiers. 12. Likewise, in the other battalion areas, obstacles were forcibly removed and bulldozed. 13. At the Khardala bridge, a small Nepalese position stood its ground for two days, despite harassment and threats. Their position has been partially destroyed and some 100 Israeli tanks have crossed the bridge in the morning of 8 June. 14. United Nations soldiers and observers have also maintained their positions in Tyre barracks, Chateau de Beaufort and in the enclave, despite constant danger to their lives. 15. Throughout the present hostilities, General Callaghan has repeatedly and most strenuously protested the violation of Lebanese territory by the IDF, and of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council. Since the start of the operation, UNIFIL headquarters at Naquora has been cut off from all UNIFIL battalions and supply routes have been closed. Communications have become difficult and the Iogistical situation is grave. 16. I need hardly add that the continuing spread and escalation of the hostilities is a matter of the most profound concern.

I now call on the representative of Lebanon.

My Government has asked for this urgent meeting because the situation in Lebanon is becoming increasingly grave and serious. 19. First, I take note of the Secretary-General’s report [S//5/78] and in this context I reiterate my Government’s position. I would ask the Council also to take due note of Israel’s flat non-compliance with both Council resolution 508 (1982) and resolution 509 (1982). 20. I thank the Secretary-General for his verbal report this morning and I also thank his colleagues. I take note of the flagrant attacks by the invading forces against UNIFIL, and of the threats and attempts to prevent UNIFIL from fulfilling its mandate, which indeed constitute flagrant defiance of the authority of the Council and OF the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. 22. The Lebanese Red Cross, affiliated with the International Red Cross, is issuing an appeal stating unequivocally that its ambulances, its automobiles and its volunteer workers have been the targets of savage attacks by Israelis and that they have been Iprevented from fulfilling their duty to evacuate the ciwlians and the wounded and to transport medicines, blood and food supplies to the distressed. 23. This in itself gives the Council an idea of the sort of war that Israel is waging and of the sort of peace it claims to want. 24. The PRESIDENT (interprettrtion fiorn Fwrrt.hl: The next speaker is the representative of Israel. on whom I now call.

At a time like this, it behoves us all to speak with honesty and with candour: it behoves us all to refrain from making empty accusations: it behoves us all to forgo the habit, which many of us seem to have acquired here in this building and in this chamber, of engaging in hollow pontification. This is a serious time for all of us. It is a serious time for the peoples of Israel and Lebanon. And, as we all know, the origins of this serious situation go back for some time. They go back for at least a decade: ever since, Lebanon’s sovereignty has been systematically eroded and undermined by a variety of elements--and I do not have to mention them because the members of the Council are familiar with them, despite the fact that the situation in Lebanon has never in all these years been placed on the agenda of the Council. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the origins of this situation are also well known to Mr. TuCni. 26. As far as Israel is concerned, for the past dccade and more, Lebanese territory has become the launching-pad and the staging-ground for iindiscrim- 32. I cannot and will not hide from you, Mr. President, and the other members of the Council the feeling of the people of Israel that the Council has for all these years treated with callousness and indifference all our complaints with regard to PLO barbarism originating from Lebanon against Israeli civilians. In these circumstances, it is the right and the duty of the Government of Israel to take the necessary measures to protect the lives of Israel’s citizens and to ensure their safety. 27. International terrorism has converted Lebanon into one of its major centres-indeed, into its world headquarters. The terrorist PLO, which has systematically undermined and subverted Lebanese sovereignty ever since the early 197Os, has welcomed to Lebanon its terrorist guests from other parts of the war-Id. 28. But to come back to the major preoccupation of my country: Lebanon has become the staging ground for every terrorist outrage perpetrated against Israelis in Israel and abroad, as well as against Jews around the world. For IO years and more Israel has been regularly reporting these outrages to the Council. There have been hundreds of complaints submitted by LIS to the Council. All of them have gone unheeded. The Council has remained unmoved. It has not seen fit to act with a view to curbing the criminal activities of the PLO. 33. Israel has no territorial ambitions whatsoever in Lebanon. We do not covet even one single square inch of Lebanese territory. We do not want to stay in Lebanon, or in any part thereof. But we are entitled to demand that proper arrangements be made so that Lebanon should no longer serve as a staging ground for terrorist attacks against Israel’s civilian population, We are entitled to demand that concrete arrangements be made that would permanently and reliably preclude hostile action against Israel’s citizens from Lebanese soil. 34. Let me make it very clear: We fully support the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty-Lebanese SOVereignty that has been eroded over the past IO years, first by the PLO and subsequently by the Syrian army of occupation. We stand for the full restoration of Lebanese sovereignty, of Lebanese independence, of Lebanese territorial integrity, of the unity of Lebanon within its internationally recognized boundaries and for the restoration of the local authority of the Government of Lebanon within that country. 29. Has the Council ever pronounced itself against the harassment by the PLO of Israel’s civilian population, especially in the northern part of the country -our civilian population in the Galilee, which has been repeatedly subjected to massive bombardment, to shelling and to rocket attacks by the PLO, which has been provided with long-range artillery pieces and Katyusha rocket launchers by the Soviet Union and its other protectors? The Council has not evinced the slightest interest in these Israeli complaints. 35. We have stated our position in this regard many times in the Council over the years. We abide by this policy. But we insist, on the basis of reciprocity, that Lebanon equally acknowledge the right of Israel’s people to live in peace and security without the threat of harassment and terrorist attacks from across the Lebanese border. 30. When is the Council galvanized into action? When Israel, after years of unparalleled restraint, finally resorts to the exercise of its natural, fundamental and inherent right of self-defence, which is the inalienable right of any State and which is also recognized by the Charter of the United Nations. In order to save a terrorist organization from well-deserved and longoverdue retribution, the Council is then convened in emergency meetings, urgent meetings and every conceivable form of extraordinary session. 31. Let me just briefly recall that this is the same Council which over all these years has not found the time to devote even one such meeting to a debate on the situation in Lebanon as a whole and to the causes NOTE HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be obtained I‘rom bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nations. Sales Section. New York or Geneva. 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