S/PV.2530 Security Council

The continuing plight of the Lebanese people touches most, if not all of us. The Council has a duty to do all it can to help restore the peace and stability which they seek and to uphold the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of their State. 45. Allow me also to extend thanks to your predecessor, Mr. Arias Stella, the representative of Peru, President of the Council during the month of March, for his excellent and tactful conduct of the Council’s work. 39. In his letter of 9 April to the Secretary-General, the representative of Lebanon stated that his Govemment believed that the time might have come for the Security Council to reassess the mission of UNIFIL so that it could perform a more dynamic role. My Government agrees with this and has long advocated an expanded United Nations presence in Lebanon. We much regretted that the Council was prevented, two months ago, from taking action to strengthen the United States presence in Beirut. We are pleased, therefore, that the Secretary-General has proposed in his report to the Council that UNIFIL should be enabled in the near future to play an expanded role. This is both helpful and constructive. We welcome the soundings which he has already taken with the parties concerned. We believe that this is the right way to proceed and we support the objectives which he has set out in his report. As he rightly states, all concerned 46. Once more Lebanon requests a six-month renewal of the UNIFIL mandate, on the basis of the terms defined in resolution 426 (1978). 47. UNIFIL, about whose situation the Secretary- General spoke indetail in his report of 9 April 1984, has been unable, for reasons well known to everyone here which I see no need to repeat now, to discharge in full the mandate assigned it by the Council. 48. UNIFIL still has a long way to go to discharge and complete its mission in the best possible manner. In this connection, the report of the Secretary-General recommended an extension of UNIFIL’s mandate and a fu- 49. In addition, we strongly support the Secretary- General’s proposal for the temporary deployment of UNIFIL, with elements of the Lebanese army and internal security forces, in areas vacated by Israeli forces. Similarly, we strongly support UNIFIL’s expanded deployment to assist in the restoration of Lebanese authority and sovereignty up to the internationally recognized boundary, as well as the working out of the necessary arrangements to.ensure the speedy transformation of southern Lebanon into a zone of peace under the sovereignty and authority of the Lebanese Government. 50. My Government also hopes that the main arterial roads in the south will soon be brought under UNIFIL supervision. My Government calls for an opening of all crossing points and roads leading to the south. We call for an end to all activities being carried out against the civilian Lebanese population and officials. 51. The conditions prevailing in southern Lebanon are extremely grave, and the measures taken by the Israeli authorities, including blocking the main highway to the south, lead to the dismemberment of southern Lebanon and its partitioning from Lebanon and subject it to economic and security regulations that have adverse effects on the status of the population there. Southern Lebanon is part and parcel of the Lebanese homeland. Peace throughout Lebanon is closely bound to the question of southern Lebanon and its fate. 52. In this connection, it is imperative to affii categorically that the Lebanese Government does not recognize any military formations or commands that have not been officially and legitimately established or appointed. Hence it does not recognize or deal on any level or in any context with any such artificial military formations and commands, including the so-called Army of South Lebanon, or Lahad’s army. 53. The Council’s responsibility in this question is both direct and of great importance because it is charged with the preservation of international peace and security and, hence, with responsibility for the peace and security of any Member State in the world whose citizens are beset by the same suffering being inflicted on the population of southern Lebanon. The 54. In view of the critical conditions that exist at 4 present in southern Lebanon, we regard the resolution adopted by the Council today as a further step forward in the discharge of UNIFIL’s basic, mission. We also regard it as a point of departure for serious initiatives, under the Council’s supervision, to be undertaken personally by the Secretary-General. 1’ 55. In conclusion, I must, on behalf of the Govemment and people of Lebanon, express great thanks to the Secretary-General for his report, which is characteristically clear and candid and. which includes practical and realistic elements and a comprehensive outlook inspired by his sincere desire to contribute effectively to the restoration of peace and security in southern Lebanon. I should also like to extend thanks to the States participating in, UNIFIL and to their troops in southern Lebanon under the command of Lieutenant-General Callaghan, as well as to all his staff, civilian and military, for their praiseworthy work under conditions that are, to put it mildly, extremely difficult, in view of the fact that circumstances do not yet allow UNIFIL to discharge its mission as expected. 56. The PRESIDENT [interpretation from Russian]: I should like to inform members of the Council that I have just received a letter from therepresentative of Israel in which he requests to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite that representative to participate in the discussion, without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Blum (Israel) took the place reserved for him at the side of the Council chamber. 57. The PRESIDENT [interpretutionf[om Russian] The representative of Israel has asked to speak. I therefore invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. I 8’:

At the outset; permit me to express to you, Sir, my respects on your assumption of the presidency for this month. May I also take this opportunity to express our warm appreciation to the representative of Peru for the very able and effective manner in which he carried out the functions of the presidency last month. <,t ‘.< , 59. It had not been my intention to intervene in this deb.ate.. However, in view of the highly .&temperate and 60. As I have repeatedly had occasion to state in the Council, it is my Government’s view that, in the circumstances surrounding the situation in Lebanon since June 1982, UNIFILhas outlived its usefulness in southem Lebanon and ,its presence is no longer called for there. As was rightly stated by the Secretary-General in his report on,UNIFIL dated 14 October 1982, the events of 1982 had Yradically altered the circumstances in which UNIFIL was established and under which it had functioned since March 1978” [S/154.5.5, para. I7J. Likewise, in his report on UNIFIL dated 12 October 1983 the Secretary-General again stated that those events “radically, altered the conditions under which UNIFIL was created and is intended to function” [S/16036, para. ,211. The growing recognition to this effect is also evidenced by the position adopted in recent months by a number of contributing countries which, seeing no,effective mission for UNIFIL in its present area of deployment, have accordingly reduced their troops in the.field. 65. Thirdly, Israel likewise regards paragraph 16 of the report as incomplete in its treatment of the numerous terrorist incidents in the area. This is further’ compounded by the fact that the identity of the perpetrators of those terrorist acts is omitted. 66. I have deliberately refrained in my statement from responding to some provocative and inflammatory statements made earlier here containing the customary distortions regarding the situation in Lebanon as a whole. My Government’s position on that question is well known and requires no repetition here. Since the matter.on the agenda is the extension of UNIFIL’s mandate, which apparently seems to have been forgotten by the representative of the Soviet Union, I have confined myself in my statement to the issues properly related to the item on the agenda. Any outburst such as the outburst of the representative of the Soviet Union which we have heard here earlier in this meeting is’ in our view hardly worthy of comment in a civilized debate. 61. It is Israel’s position that the security of southern Lebanon should eventually be guaranteed by Lebanese forces. At the same time, Israel believes that UNIFIL could perform a useful role by serving as a buffer separating the Israel Defence Forces and the Syrian forces currently in Lebanon.. Likewise, in the view of the Government of Israel, UNIFIL could fulfil a useful function north of the area of deployment of the Israel Defence Forces, where it could serve as a genuine peace-keeping force. With regard to the possibility of UNIFIL’s deployment there, including the Sidon area, the Government of Israel would be prepared to consider and discuss this matter in due course. 67. Mr. OVINNIKOV (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) [interpretation from Ruisian]: Today’s statement by the representative of Israel is typical on two scores: first, there is no reference in his statement to any intention on Israel’s part to withdraw’its forces from Lebanon; secondly, his statement clearly reflects Israel’s designs on southern Lebanon and Israel’s notion that ‘it can there promulgate its own regime. This once again confirms the propriety of the Soviet delegation’s raising the matter. Indeed, it is time the Council seriously considered how to force Israel to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. -_ 62. As for the Secretary-General’s recent report on UNIFIL, in general my Government has reservations in regard to many of the remarks, statements and observations contained therein. Some of these reservations have already been communicated to the Secretary-General. I will therefore confine myself here today to the following remarks. 68. The PRESIDENT [interpretationfrom Russian]: The representative of Israel has asked to exercise his right of reply. I therefore invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 631 First, theresolutions of the Council referred to in 69. Mr. BLUM (Israel): It is indeed not my intention paragraph 22 of the Secretary-General’s report cannot to be drawn into a debate by the representative of the be regarded by Israel as the basis for consideration by Soviet Union, who uses every opportunity to divert the Council of the issue before us, in view of the fact attention from agenda items before the Council. He has that the situatitin on the ground clearly demonstrates now appointed himself to be the offtcial interpreter of that it is not Israel’s military presence in the southern my statement, Members of the Council have heard my part of Lebanon that lies at the root of Lebanon’s statement and I think they will all readily agree-with instability. Regrettably, the report makes no mention the exception, of course, of the representative of the of the presenCe of Syrian and terrorist forces in Lebanon, of their well-documented responsibility for de- Soviet Union-that his interpretation of my statement is as accurate as was his presentation of facts before; stabilizing that country as a whole and of their role in but then, of course, we have all become accustomed to depriving the ,Lebanese Government of its authority by arrogating thaY‘authority to themselves. Consequently, his customary departures from the truth, and we should have been surprised if for once he had stuck to the truth. 71. Well, Ambassador Ovinnikov, the root causes lie elsewhere. You are familiar with them because your country is directly involved in them. Your country directly and indirectly,‘through its well-known stooges in the region, which I will not name because all of us know them, has been instrumental in destabilizing Lebanon for a decade and more. Those .are the .root causes, and you cannot .divert attention from them by engaging the Council in your periodic book reviews of American authors. I am sure we all appreciate your book reviews and your recommendations as to what we ought to read and what we should not. read. But the time has come for you to recommend some interesting memoirs -of the Soviet leadership, which you have not 73. Now, this argument obviously was intended to be pre-empted in the statement of Ambassador Ovinni-‘ kov. But the facts remain the facts and cannot be explained away. It is standard tactics on the part of Soviet representatives to try and lead a debate on matters, while, when it comes to the financial implications. of those matters, they are rather reluctant to join in. 74. I should like to ask one question, in the same vein in which Ambassador Ovinnikov asked it; I will only change one word in that question. How long does he think the United Nations can acquiesce in the ongoing Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which, together with the terrorist presence in that country, is the root cause of the tragedy of that country? 75. The PRESIDENT [interpretationfrom Russian]: There are no further speakers. The Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda. The meeting rose at 7.25 p.m. HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be obtained from bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write fo: United Nations, Sales Section, New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les publications des Nations Unies sent en vente dans les librairies et les agences depositaires du monde entier. Inf’ormez-vous auprb de votre libraire ou adressez-vous B : Nations Unies. Section des ventes. New York ou Genive. 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