Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Fifty-third session Fifty-fourth year

Agenda item 40

THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Letter dated 8 January 1999 from the Permanent Representative of

Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government and further to our recent letter concerning the Israeli attack on an area near the village of Nahlah on 3 January 1999 (A/53/777-S/1999/6), I have to communicate to you hereunder particulars of fresh Israeli aggression, this time against the villages of Arnun and Shab`a.

In the early morning of 7 January 1999 Israeli occupying forces destroyed at least 14 homes in Arnun, near Qal`at at-Shaqif (Château de Beaufort), 10 days after destroying six homes in the same township.  Within hours of this outrage they carried out a large-scale raid on the beleaguered village of Shab`a in the Arqub and expelled 25 residents, including 16 children.

These fresh acts of aggression illustrate yet again Israel's contempt for international law, the safety of defenceless civilians and human rights.

The Lebanese Government, again expressing its condemnation and deprecation of these open assaults on its sovereignty and of the abusive practices inflicted on its citizens, urges the international community to take the necessary steps to halt Israeli attacks on Lebanon, to bring an end to the intimidation of its innocent inhabitants by the aggressor and occupier and to ensure that those expelled can return to their homes.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 40, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Samir MOUBARAK     

Ambassador       

Permanent Representative

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