S/PV.2653 Security Council

In accordance with the decisions taken at the 265lst meeting, I invite the representative of Israel to take a place at the Council table; I invite the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to take a place at the Council table. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Netanyahu (Israel} and Mr. El-Fattal (Syrian Arab Republic} took places at the Council table.

I should like to inform members of the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Jordan, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Morocco in which they reauest to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council's agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives 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, There being no objection, it is so decided. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Azzarouk (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) took a place at the Council table; Mr, Kasrawi (Jordan) and Mr. Alaoui (Morecco) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council Chamber.

The Security Council will now resume consideration of the item on its agenda, _ Members of the Council have before them document S/17796, containing the text of a draft resolution introduced by the Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Arab Emirates. X should like to draw the attention of members of the Council to document $/17792, containing the text of a letter dated 4 February 1986 addressed to the Secretary-General by the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the United Nations. The first-speaker is the representative of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and I now cali on him. Mr, AZZAROUK (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (interpretation from Arabic): At the outset it is my pleasure to extend to you, Sir, our best wishes on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for this month. We are confident that you will successfully guide the work of this Council with your well-known wisdom, proven skill and long experience. We are doubly pleased because you represent a State friendly to the Jamahiriya, to which it is bound by ties of friendship, understanding and mutual respect. We cherish the heroic struggie of. the Congolese people to free its homeland, achieve its independence and enhance its sovereignty. Tt am also pleased to express our appreciation to your predecessor, Ambassador Li Luve, the Permanent Representative of friendly China, for the outstanding skill with which he conducted the work of the Council last month. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has sent to the Secretary~General a note associating itself with the Syrian request for the immediate convening of the Security Council to consider the dimensions of the terrorist act carried out by Israeli war planes against the Libyan civil aircraft. In this regard we should (Mr. Azzarouk, Libyan Arab Jamah iriya) like to emphasize what was said by His Excellency the Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in his statement to the Council yesterday evening in this regard. In January the Council met twice to consider flagrant acts of aggression and blatant violations of sanctity, people and property. We met once to consider acts of aggression by the Israeli occupation authorities against the population of the villages and cities of southern Lebanon, which under the Israeli law of the jungle has been doomed to become victims of displacement, expulsion, detention and imprisonment. We also met to discuss the flagrant violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Those violations constitute a blatant provocation of the sentiments of Muslims ever ywhere, The series of Israeli terrorist criminal acts of aggression has not ended. Rather it has widened to include the air, land and sea. We are meeting today to consider an act of air piracy that was utterly unwarranted and had no basis whatsoever in customary international law. Two Israeli aircraft intercepted a Libyan civil aircraft in international airspace above the Mediterranean. The two Israeli aircraft forced the Libyan aircraft, G2, registered under No. LN 777(5-ADDR NDAE), forced it to fly to occupied Palestine and land on an israeli airfield. The aircraft carried a Syrian official delegation under the leadership of Comrade Abdullah Al-Ahmar, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Baath Socialist Party. It was returning from an official visit to the Jamahiriya, (Mr. Azzarouk, Libyan Arab Jamahariya} The representative of the Zionist entity has in this Chamber admitted this terrorist, criminal act, which is a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, international law and relevant Conventions, in addition to constituting a violation of the sovereignty of the owner State and aggression against the freedom of the passengers, jeopardizing their safety and security. This terrorist, criminal act is a violation of all international Conventions governing international civil air traffic and guaranteeing the freedom and safety of air navigation, foremost among which are the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, of 23 September 1971, and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, of 16 December 1970. This criminal operation was condemned even by some officials in occupied Palestine. A member of the Zionist Knesset, Matti Peled, said on Israeli television: (spoke in English) "This interception is a deplorable act of terrorism, it is an act of piracy." (continued in Arabic} As for Abba Eban, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the so-called Israeli Knesset, he revealed the true intentions of the Zionist entity and its cynical disregard for international law, when he said: "There is nothing that stands more in contradiction to the law than terrorism, But terrorism hides behind the wings of the law. What determines the international reaction is the success or lack of success. Jamahariya) “If that person had been on the plane, the free world would have hailed our action. Since the effort failed, I assume there will be criticism on the grounds of the need to respect the law. It is easier for me to describe that paradex than to solve it." Yes, this operation is truly an act of terrorism and air piracy, and what we witnessed in this Chamber by way of a transparent attempt to divert debate from the main question cannot lessen the hideousness of this operation or the international community's insistence on condeming and denouncing it. When brotherly Syria brought its complaint before the Council against Israeli air piracy it did so on behalf of the Arab Group. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and every other Arab State supports this complaint and enthusiastically endorses it. In order to divert the discussion from its objective, it was also said that there are those who feel that the establishment of the Zionist entity and implanting it in the heart of the Arab nation was wrong, but the Israeli speaker did not tell us who expressed this view. Perhaps it was because he did not wish to recall the views of the Chief Rabbi of Britain or the Chief Rabbi af the United States; or perhaps he did not want us to remember the yearly demonstrations of Jewish clerics before the very premises bearing placards declaring that Zionism does not express their views and that the Zionist enti ty does not represent them. All of them feel that implanting the Zionist entity in the heart of the Arab nation is wrong from the religious point of view and a political mistake, In any case, that is another matter, and we do not want to be lured into the trap that was set up to distract the Council from considering the complaint brought before it. The record of the Israeli entity is replete with acts of piracy and terrorism. On 21 February 1973 Israeli war planes seized the opportunity presented when a Libyan civil aircraft departed from its scheduled route owing to a sandstorm (Mc. Azzarouk, Libyan Arab Jamahariya) and intercepted it, forced it to fly to the Sinai peninsula and then shot it down with air-to-air missiles, killing all 106 passengers, including women, children, and elderly people. Among the victims were a former Foreign Minister and members of the House of Representatives of the Egyptian-Libyan Union, in addition to a large number of children and Libyan doctors and lawyers. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) condemned this vicious, barbaric act and held the Israeli entity fully responsible for it, calling for an immediate investigation of that act of terrorism. On 28 February 1973, the Organization expressed its condemnation of this barbaric act. Moreover, the Israeli entity also intercepted a civil aircraft of Middle East Airlines leased to Iraqi Airways and forced it down in the territory of occupied Palestine, In its resolution 337 (1973) of 15 August 1973 the Security Council condemned this act of air piracy and strongly denounced it. This series of Israeli acts of aggression jeopardizing civil aircraft and the lives of innocent passengers will not stop unless the Council fully assumes its responsibilities and resorts to the powers vested in it, as clearly provided for in Chapter VII of the Charter. We know that the task before the Council will be difficult in view of the protection the Israeli entity enjoys within it. The United States of America exercised the right of veto on 18 different occasions to protect the Israeli entity from any condemnation, or even censure. Now we shall once more hear the same clichés, The United States will, as usual, express its regret that the lives of innocent civilians were jeopardized, but it will vote against any draft resolution and descr ibe it, as it does on every cocasion, as unbalanced, It will not serve the United States efforts at imposing full capitulation on the Arab region and at legitimizing the Zionist entity and recognizing secure borders for it. Jamahari ya) The United States is in fact an accomplice of the Zionist entity in every act of terrorism the latter carries out, especially the acts of piracy it could not have carried out without the assistance of the ships of the American Sixth Fleet cruising the Mediterranean - the same ships’ from which American aircraft recently intercepted an Egyptian aircraft and forced it down in southern Italy. The ships of the Sixth Fleet, which are on their way now to be deployed off the Libyan shores to undertake further aggressive and provocative manoeuvres within Libyan territor ial waters, are equipped with the latest electronic equipment and provide Israeli military aircraft with the information necessary to intercept any aircraft flying in Mediterranean airspace. The Zionist entity could not have intercepted the Libyan civil aircraft and forced it down in occupied Palestine without the assistance of the ships of the Sixth Fleet monitoring air traffic in the region. In the meeting held yesterday evening we witnessed an insult to the intelligence and knowledge of the members of this Council that bordered on insolence. The representative of the Israeli entity did not hesitate to declare arrogantly that it was the entity's right to intercept any civil aircraft under a new international law formulated by that entity which he called the "law of suspicion". Never had we heard of such a strange norm that places normative law on the same footing as divine law. Jamahiriya) As I say, the Zionist entity emphasizes the fact that it disregards the will of the international community, Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, and shirks all its commitments under the Charter. Its representative in this Chamber has described our debates as “Ludicrous" and his chief has torn up United Nations resolutions in the General Assembly Halil and thrown them, as he said, “in the dust bin of history”. The Zionist entity's act is one of air piracy and terrorism, constitutes a blatant violation of the rules of international law, and jeopardizes civil aviation. The interception by Israeli military aircraft of Libyan civilian aircraft is a clear example of systematic State terrorism and is the most heinous expression of cynical disregard foc international laws and norms. ‘That the Zionist entity carried out that act is an affirmation of its terrorist nature and should be added to its record replete with terrorism in the region. That entity, as well as its existence and practices, falls beyond the pale of international legitimacy and provides the clearest examples of State terrorism. The Security Council is called upon today, more than ever before, to denounce and condemn that act and take firm steps to deter any further terrorist deeds. It is high time for the Council to consolidate its prestige and impose respect for its resolutions, It can achieve that only if it resorts to the available means provided in the Charter ~ principally, depriving the Zionist entity of membership in the United Nations ana imposing deterrent economic sanctions against it to make it heed the will of the international community, comply with the relevant resolutions of this international body, and respect the Council's prestige.

I thank the representative of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for the kind words he addressed to me. | The next speaker is the representative of Jordan. I invite him to take a Place at the Council table and to make his statement. Mr. KASRAWI (Jordan) (interpretation from Arabic}: Allow me first, on behalf of my delegation, to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of February. We are confident that your wisdom and skill will enable you to conduct successfully the Council's proceedings. I should also like to thank your predecessor, Ambassador Li Luye, the Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations, for the wise and masterly way in which he presided over the Council's work during the month of January. The Security Council is met here to examine an issue relating to the serious violation of international civil aviation, an incident that has adversely affected international civil aviation and shaken the trust and confidence of nations in its safety. Israel has committed an act of air piracy in which Israeli military aircraft intercepted in international air space a Libyan civilian aircraft with high-level Libyan officials on board and forced it to land at an Israeli air base. This is not the first time that Israel has violated international rules relating to the safety of civil aviation and thus endangered the lives of civilian passengers. In November 1973, an Israeli aircraft violated Lebanese airspace and hijacked a Libyan civilian aircraft, chartered by an Iraqi airline, with 74 civilian passengers on board, and forced it to land at an Israeli military airport. There is no need for me to remind the Council that in 1973 Israeli bombers shot down a Libyan civilian aircraft flying over Egyptian territory, resulting in the death of innocent civilian passengers ~- American, Polish, Arab and Egyptian. 4y country expressed strong condemnation of that act of terrorism directed not only against the individuals involved but, first and foremost, against the international sommunity, thus posing a threat to international peace and security. There is in international law a body of universally recognized general acinicples which are an integral part of mankind's legal heritage. Recognition of and respect for those principles constitute one of the pillars of the legal system on which civilized relations between nations are founded. That is why it was only latural for the international community to react with indignation and condemn that jJeed. Hence my country also joined in requesting the urgent convening of the Zouncil to consider that act of aggression, a violation of international sonventions governing the safety of civilian aviation, has impeded peace efforts in a region rife with tension and conflict, and will resuit in greater instability there, We hope that this noble body, to which the Charter has entrusted the main responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security, will shoulder its responsibilities, condemn this violation of the most elementary rules and principles promulgated by the United Nations and the international community for the preservation of the safety and lives of civilian passengers, and adopt measures to dissuade Israel from repeating such terrorist deeds. ‘The Council can accomplish that by adopting the draft resolution which is before it.

I thank the representative of Jordan for the kind words he has addressed to me. The next speaker is the representative of Morocco, I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. Mr. ALAOUL (Morocco) (interpretation from Arabic): Pirst, I congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for this month, It is a pleasure also to express our appreciation and thanks to the representative of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Li Luye, for the wisdom he showed in leading the Council's deliberations Last month. For the third time in one month the Security Council is considering a complaint against Israel by Arab States as a result of terrorist acts committed by Israeli leaders against Arab people and countries. This time, the complaint is by the Syrian Arab Republic; it concerns the interception by the Israeli air force of a civil jet aircraft which was in international air space and had on board an official Syrian delegation returning from an official visit to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. I need not go into the details of that incident; they have already been set forth by the Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in his statement to the Council on this item. This is not the first time that Israel has committed such a criminal act. indeed, it hijacked a Libyan and a Lebanese jet aircraft in, respectively, 1971 and 1973. This latest criminal act is but one link in the chain of terrorist acts perpetrated by the leaders of Israel against the Arab peoples and countries, in broad daylight and in full view of everyone. These acts are committed in grave violation of the norms, values and laws that govern international relations. This most recent hijacking provides further proof of the Israeli leaders’ determination to persist in theit violence and terror by all means, and even to extend the scope of their acts of aggression to areas outside the occupied territories, to all the Arab States. All of us here remember well the air raids carried out by Israeli forces against the Iraqi nuclear reactor and the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the sister country of Tunisia, Still worse, the Israeli leaders admit unambiguously and without shame to having perpetrated these acts of provocation. Israeli officials have already confirmed that they committed this most recent act and that its purpose was to seize Palestinians believed to be on board the aircraft in question. Indeed, according to today’s New York Times, an Israeli official has stated that Israel will resort to other acts of hijacking in the future, It is indeed strange that while, on the one hand, the Israeli air force commits these acts of piracy, we find, on the other hand, in document $/17723 - an official document of the Security Council ~ a call by the Israeli Minister for Transportation for the convening of an international conference to ensure the safety of civil aviation. He states that such a conference "will express the resolve of all enlightened and civilized nations to combat terror against civil aviation and airports". (S/17723, Pp. 2) That stark contrast between Israel's empty claims and its real acts reveals the nature of the policy pursued by the Israeli leaders. It is a policy designed first and foremost to mislead international public opinion, to cover up Israel's arbitrary terrorist actions and to consolidate its faits accomplis. Ttsrael is encouraged to pursue this policy and to continue flagrantly to flout the international community by the impotence of the international Organization, and especially the Security Council, which so far has failed to adopt more effective measures to put an end to the policy and to impose the sanctions that are commensurate with the gravity of the situation. The credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations are first and foremost a function of the Security Council's ability to maintain international peace and security. That ability is being tested teday by this latest act of piracy organized by the Israeli leaders. This act is without any doubt a form of international terrorism. Indeed, according to today's New York Times, a member of the Israeli Parliament, Matti Peled, admitted that this was "a deplorable act of terrorism ~ an act of piracy that joins a List of intolerable acts". In its resolution 40/61 of 9 December 1985, the General Assembly unequivocally condemned as criminal all acts, methods and practices of terrorism wherever and by whomever commited, including those which jeopardize friendly relations among States and their security. In resolution 579 (1985), adopted unanimously, the Security Council confirmed that all States should undertake not to commit acts of hostage-taking and abduction, and insisted that all States should take into account the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civilian Aviation, adopted on 23 September 1971; the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, adopted on 16 December 1970; and all other relevant conventions. In an attempt to justify every act of terrorism they commit against Arab peoples and countries, the Israeli officials hide behind the theory of security against what they call "Arab terrorism", and in particular "terrorism by the Palestine Liberation Organization". Everyone here is aware of the position taken by the Arab States on the issue of terrorism. We wish to refer in particlar to the following passage from the final communiqué of the Arab summit conference in Casablancat “Out of commitment to the principles in which the Arab nation believes and @rawing its inspiration from its civilization, its noble origin and its deep-rooted traditions, the Conference strongly disapproves of terrorism in all its forms and regardless of its source and, in the first instance, of Tseaeli terrorism both inside and outside the occupied Arab territories. It considers that recourse to terrorism is not in keeping with the ideals of mankind, and it calis for adherence to the principles of truth and justice in order to achieve the desired objectives and for the defence of national interests through the use of the legal means established by the international conventions.” {A/46/564, p. 5) The Kingdom of Merocco, which made every effort during the last session of the General Assembly to bring about the adoption by consensus of a special resolution condemning international terrorism, wishes once again to express its condemnation of all acts of terror, regardless of their form or sources. In this context, the Security Council, which bears the prime responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, is called upon to take the necessary, effective measures required by the situation, by guaranteeing the implementation of United Nations resolutions, considered an expression of international norms. In this respect, it is unreasonable to discriminate between acts of terror according to their source or form. Israel does not enjoy any special immunity in the fr amewor k of the United Nations, Therefore, the Security Council must shoulder its responsibilities by imposing the necessary and adequate punishments to deter Israel from carrying out further criminal acts likely to endanger international peace and security. Tt would be remiss of me to conclude my statement without confirming the solidarity of the Kingdom of Morocco with the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Syrian instructive. The Syrian paper Alzaht Alahadr formally declared on 20 February 1985 ~- not long ago: . "Libya must supply weapons and train the IRA and the Red Army". Indeed, not long after that the police of Ireland, on 27 January 1986, just a few days ago, announced the confiscation of guns and ammunition smuggled to the IRA froma Libya. Those weapons were of Russian and Bast European origin: AK~47s, Kalashnikovs. But the curious thing is that they were in crates that still had the fresh markings of the Libyan army. Qaddafi, of course, similarly supports not only those two terrorist groups, but the ETA, the Basque group, against Spain; the FP 25 against Portugal; the Red Brigades against Italy; the M-19 against Colombia; the Asalea against Turkey; and the Red Army against Japan. I could go on. How does he do that? How does he support those and other groups? He supports them, first, by giving them a home, a home to train. There are at least -- to our knowledge, anyway; there may be considerably more - 20 camps inside Libya for the training of terrorists. Some of them are in the Jabour Oasis. That is south-west of the Egyptian border. Some are in a region called Code 476, and two camps in particular have had many intakes - literally thousands of people pass through them. One is 20 kilometres from the Al Bidah region and the second is near Tobruk. The terrorists are grouped, typically by nationality; they are not mixed. They are usually segregated by groups of nationalities, For example, Tunisians, Moroccans and Sudanese are trained at the Sar‘i, Sabha and Alzawiyeh camps, and those coming from African countries in Zangour and Kudas. The operations of these and other terrorists are supervised and directed through three principal organs of the Libyan Government. The first is the Secret Bureau, which reports directly to Qaddafi. The second is the Arab Bureau, which Supervises terrorism in the Arab worid. I might add that, as much as most of the world outside the Middle East has suffered from Libyan-supported terrorism, if one actually counts the number of people attacked, killed and so on, one finds that the terrorism inside the Arab world, sponsored by Libya, is a very close competitor; in some years it exceeds it. The third agency is the Foreign Relations Bureau, whose responsibility is to recruit mercenaries for operations around the world. These operations, incidentally, are managed and carried out by other bureaux, the so-called People's Bureaux: the Libyan embassies which direct terrorist operations in Europe and Africa. This activity is, of course, wide-ranging; it includes all types of terrorist attacks. But since our interest is not only terrorism as a whole, but the specific question of civil aviation, I will say that Libya has a very long record in that sphere, to put it mildly. I shall give just a few examples from the early 1970s, then skip to closer to home, because I think these will be enough to illustrate the problem we are talking about. In the early 1970s, Qaddafi founded and operated a terrorist organization called the National Arab Youth Organization for the Liberation of Palestine. Most of its activities were targeted against international civil aviation. The organization was financed and operated by Libya; its members were trained on Libyan soil, The memers were recrui ted from Fatah, from the Habash Front, from Jibril's group and from other terrorist organizations. What kind of operations did they carry out? In 1974 they blew up a TWA plane over Athens; they killed all 88 passengers and crew. Again in 1974, a British plane was hijacked en route from Beirut to Amsterdam by this group: the terrorists blew up the plane after the passengers were taken off. In 1973 they carried out two attacks. One was against the Pan american airliner hijacked from Fiumicino airport in Rome; they killed 31 people and wounded 40 others. At the same time they hijacked a Lufthansa flight to Kuwait and killed one hostage. Again in 1973, they conducted a mass murder attack in Athens airport; they killed four civilians and wounded 54 others, most of them passengers from a TWA flight that had arrived from Israel. For the sake of brevity, I shall skip forward, closer to home. I shali start with the 1980s. I shall go country by country; as members will see, many of the attacks are not conducted against Israel. There does not seem to be any particular discrimination against countries. For example, in February 1981 in Italy, a Libyan gunman opened fire on passengers arriving at Rome's airport on a flight from Algiers. A prominent anti-Qaddafi exile was the specific target of that attack. In October 1981 in Egypt, Libya exploded two bombs in luggage unloaded from a plane coming from Libya via Malta. In June 1983 in Jordan, the Libyan Ambassador to Jordan defected and revealed that Qaddafi had plans to use missiles to shoot down the aircraft carrying Xing Hussein, I did not hear a reference to that from the Jordanian representative, In April 1984 in Britain, a bomb exploded in Heathrow airport injuring 25; it was traced to luggage unloaded from a Libyan plane. In April 1985 in Greece, we see the emergence of Abu Nidal. Abu Nidal had previously been operating on behalf of Syria} he had now moved part of his operation to Libya and was then conducting operations on behalf of Libya. The particular operation in Greece was the firing of a rocket at a Jordanian airliner as it was taking off from Athens airport. The rocket hit the plane, but miraculously did not explode. in July 1985 in Spain, the Abu Nidal group attacked the British Airways office and the nearby ticket office of Alia, the Jordanian | airline, killing one and wounding 24, In septenber 1985 in Italy, the Abu Nidal group bombed the British Airways office, injuring 15 passers-by. In November 1985 in Malta - which I am sure is fresh in everybody's mind - the Abu Nidal group hijacked an Egyptian airliner and killed several passengers after landing them in Malta. Egypt, as will be remembered, accused Libya of master-minding the attack. This brings us to the most recent attacks on civil aviation, the attacks in December 1985 at Rome and Vienna. Here the Abu Nidal group conducted the attacks after being provided with passports by Libya. As will be recalled, Qaddafi first praised the attacks as courageous acts and the terrorists as heroes, then, given the tumult of international censure, quickly backtracked and said that, of course, he condemned terrorism, and so on. 7 But I think one must pay particular attention to these most recent attacks, because Muhammad Sarham, the only terrorist left alife in Rome, told Italian investigators that the attack had been carried out with Libyan support. Associated Press quoted him as saying on 1 January 1986, "We have Qaddafi's support". The two terrorists in Vienna said as much, By the way, he also said “we apparently also have Syria's support". He did not know that exactly, because he was connected with the group directly aligned with Libya. Italian Premier Craxi was absolutely correct when he said to reporters at Milan on 13 January, "As for Abu Nidal, who is responsible for the crimes in Rome and Vienna and for many other crimes, in no way did the Government of Libya distance itself from him, as one would have normally expected. If anything, it proved its encour agement and support for him." Then, on 10 January, Premier Craxi said that Libya's support for Palestinian terrorists demonstrates its connection to terrorism. It is no secret that Abu Nidal skips back and forth from Tripoli to Damascus. ‘The right thing for Qaddafi to do, said Premier Craxi, would be to show him the door. He did not show him the door; in fact, he opened the door to him, and not only to him, but to many other terrorist groups. That was done formally in a conference, in a kind of terrorist "Internationale* convened in Tripoli from 1 to 4 Pebruary, the participants in which included Habash, Jibril, Abu Musa, Samir Ghosha and Abu Nizal - whe, by the way, was the representative of Abu Nidal. Abu Musa had said as mich yesterday, but E can confirm today that Abu Nizal was representing Abu Nidal, the same Abu Nidal who, the entire world knows, carried out these recent attacks. What were they discussing? They were not discussing how to promote peace in the Middle East, They were not discussing measures to eshance international security. They were discussing and co-ordinating and planning additional such attacks. That was the purpose of the conference. And what kind of attacks? These are not attacks against Israel military patrols along the Jordan valley. ‘They are not attacks against Israel's military installations, They are terrorist attacks, the same kind of attacks Libya has a Long and grisly record of performing, as TI have just shown, although T had to cite only parts of that record since I am trying to save time. Given this recent and glorious convocation, we had very clear indications that this terrorist commute - so to speak - from Tripoli to Syria, which some statesmen have already referred to, was in process and that the plans hatched out in Tripoli were on Stream, and we decided to take action. We decided to take action based on specific information about a specific plane, a plane that is a special private jet, not a regularly scheduled airline, a plane that has ferried terrorist leaders on Qaddafi's behalf in the past, and to see how close our estimation was to the truth - or, rather, the fact that our estimation was correct, for we can only quote George Habash, who yesterday said, indeed, that he himself had taken that very same plane three days earlier, So this was not a civilian airliner. T& was not an airliner in the first place: it was a specific terrorist-ferryving vehicle, if you will, conducting and ferrying terrorists. Tt so happens that Habash, as he proudly proclaimed, had not taken this particular flight, but we could not, of course, know that in advance. I have discussed here something that we may wish to shut our eyes to. But I do not think we can afford to do that, because what we see is a new kind of war. We see a Government - there are many others, but I have focussed on Libya because we are talking about a Libyan plane, we are talking, in effect, about a Libyan complaint, even though it is lodged through Syria ~ a régime that has systematically conducted, not only world-wide terrorism ~ and I stress the word "world-wide" - but repeated attacks of the most egregious kind against civilian international aviation. And the question is: what do you do with this kind of war? Forty years ago, when they founded the United Nations and drafted its documents, this war was not in existence. We had other types of war, but not this kind of war. This is a new phenomenon. The description I have given here of the facts and events could not have been given in 1945 or 1946 or 1955 or 1965. It is a new kind of war that has emerged, and I believe that international law and Jamahirya) the Kibya massacre in 1955 and the Kafer Kasem massacre in 1956. Those massacres were perpetrated by Dayan, the then De fence Minister. More recently, hundreds of women and old people were killed in the Sabra and Shatilla massacres; Sharon, the current Minister of Industry and Commer ce was responsible for that massacre, Terrorist acts have also been committed by Zionist organizations ever since the establishment of Israel up to the present time. Still fresh in our minds are the assassinations of the mayors of Bethelehem and Halhoul, in the West Bank. And we all know the terrorist acts of Kahane, a member of the Israeli Knesset who calls for the physical Liquidation of Palestinians and the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine to become new refugees, To recount all of Israel's history of terror ism would take a long time, Suffice it to refer to document A/C.6/40/5 for examples of Israel's acts of terrorism, and it is supported by articles by many writers and journalists. The policy of Zicnist Israel is that of the “Long arm", a policy it proclains Shamelessly. It was declared here in this Chamber yesterday, when its representative affirmed that the occupation authorities might intercept any civilian aircraft it suspects of carrying a person the Zionist authorities think rejects the usurpation of Palestine and calls for exercise of the rights to self-determination, independence and the establishment of the Palestinian State. The Israeli entity has no right to speak of terrorism or of innocent people because its record is replete with er iminal terrorist acts. The interception of the Libyan aircraft is but one of the terrorist actions planned by the Israeli politicians. The great failure of the Zionist enti ty will push it into perpetrating more terrorist and criminal acts. We do not know when or where they will take place, but we are sure the entity will perpetrate another such action in the near future to cover up its failure in intercepting the Libyan aircraft. (Mr. Agzarouk, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) . We must say that if the representative of the Zionist entity considers our unstinting support of the Palestinian revolution to be terrorism, and if he considers each and every Palestinian camp to be a terrorist base, well, we do not hide our support of the Palestinians from anyone in the world, ‘The whole world knows that, The United Nations distinguishes between liberation movements and terrorism. The Palestine Liberation Organization is an Observer at the United Nations; it is the national liberation movement of a people, and it works for the independence of its country and its gelf-de termination.

I call on the representative of Israel, who has asked to speak in exercise of the right of reply. . Mc. NETANYAHU (Israel): I did not hear the Libyan representative deny specific charges, [I did not hear him deny that Libya provided the passports to the Abu Nidal group or that it gives shelter to Abu Nidal, and other types of support. I did not hear him make specific denials about the Red Army or the Red Army faction vis-a-vis Germany, or the other groups I cited. I did not hear him deny any specific instance, and I should like him to ‘take up any one of these spedific instances and deny it. The issue at hand is how to protect the world against international terror ism, and foremost these murderous attacks against civil aviation. We have a very difficult choice to make. I do not think this Council is going to be the only place where this choice is going to be made. It is going to be made throughout the world. But what happens here can contribute materially, either positively or negatively, and the choice is whether to take on the type of activities and type of attacks that are represented by Mr. Qaddafi, whose representative the Council has just heard, or to behave ostrich-like and say “We wash our hands of this"; or worse, to condemn the country that fights back. So the choice is very simple: We either go on as usual or we begin the fight against international terrorism, and I hope that at least some members of the Council will know what the right choice is and make that choice.

I have ho further speakers for this meeting. The next meeting of the Security Council at which we will continue our consideration of this agenda item will be held tomorrow, Thursday, 6 February 1986, at 3.30. Before adjourning the meeting I would remind members that the Council will resume its consideration of the item entitled "The situation in southern Africa” tomorrow morning, Thursday, at 10. 30. The meeting rose at 7.35 p.m.