Sixty-fifth General Assembly

Fifth Committee

40^th Meeting (AM)

Fifth Committee Hears Introduction of Draft Resolution on Financing

 

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

 

A draft resolution concerning the financing of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was introduced today in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by the representative of Argentina, on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China.

Introducing the draft (document A/C.5/65/L.37) following a comment by New Zealand’s delegate that no consensus had been reached on the text during informal consultations, Argentina’s representative referred to General Assembly resolution 64/282 of 24 June 2010 and to the Secretary-General’s report, document A/65/756, in which the United Nations chief had stated that Israel still had not paid the $1.12 million it owed to UNIFIL due to the incident in Qana on 18 April 1996.  Nor had Israel responded to his letters regarding the incident, the most recent of which had been sent on 30 September 2010.

Argentina’s delegate stressed the need for Israel to pay its debt, and he asked the Secretary-General to inform the Assembly about the matter during its sixty-sixth session.  Highlighting preambular paragraph 4 and operative paragraphs 4, 5 and 14 of today’s draft resolution, he said the Group of 77 had co-sponsored the text as a whole.  He reiterated that the Group appreciated the Secretary-General’s efforts to address the matter and the mission’s immense sacrifice and positive role in restoring peace and security in the region.

Mindful of the fact that it is essential to provide UNIFIL with the financial resources necessary to fulfil its responsibilities under the relevant Security Council resolutions, the draft resolution would take note of the status of contributions to the Force as at 30 April 2011, including the contributions outstanding in the amount of $59.5 million, representing some 1 per cent of the total assessed contributions.

It would take note of the Secretary-General’s report on the financial performance of the Force for the 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 period (document A/65/608).  Concerning the budget estimates for the 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012 period, an underdetermined amount would be appropriated to the mission’s Special Account.  This would include $542.65 million for the maintenance of the Force, an unspecified amount for the support account for peacekeeping operations, and an unspecified amount for the United Nations Logistics Base at Brindisi, Italy.

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For information media • not an official record