Press conference following meeting with President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon, (unofficial transcript)

SG: Good morning ladies and gentlemen, actually it is good afteroon. I just had a good discussion with the President. We naturally talked about the situation in the south, the Blue Line and the need to respect it and violations which have taken place. He talked about the Israeli flights and the sonic booms. We also did discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the need to try and find a just and comprehensive peace in the region as the only way of calming the situation in the longer term. And we talked about other issues of interest to Lebanon and the UN and of course the important demining effort that is being led by Mr. de Mistura and the UN team here and the economic situation and eventually the donor conference which had been planned and I hope a date will be set for that very shortly. I will take your questions.

Q: Did you discuss with President Lahoud the Shabaa Farms issue and what the UN can do so that this issue does not destabilize the situation in the region?

SG: Yes, we did discuss the Shabaa Farms and on that I think you all are familiar with the position of the Lebanese Government and the position of the UN as stipulated in Security Council Resolution. I know the Lebanese position that Shabaa Farms is Lebanese. In the document that went to the Council, on the basis of which we drew the Blue Line, we have stated our position, or the Council position, that the Shabaa Farms belongs, according to our records, to Syria and that in time this issue will be resolved and the land may revert back to Lebanon.

Israel knows that Shabaa Farms is not Israeli and will eventually withdraw and at that point I'm sure it will revert to either Syria or Lebanon. But since both Syria and Lebanon agree that it should be Lebanese, in time it will revert to Lebanon. But in the meantime the Blue Line, as it is drawn, has to be respected. We have enough problems in the region. We are all focused on calming the crisis in the Occupied Territory and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. We do not need to open another front. I have appealed to everyone to respect the Blue Line and to keep the situation calm. It's been relatively calm. In fact, we have statistics when we compare the number of accidents and deaths before the withdraw ended and the tracing of the Blue Line. There has been considerable improvement and I would want to keep it that way.

Q: What is the UN going to do to stop the Israeli (overflights of Lebanon)?

SG: Yes, I think my representative here has made it clear that these flights are in violation of the agreement. When Israel withdrew, we made it clear that when we talk of respect for territorial integrity of Lebanon we meant terrestrial, marine and air. Therefore, those flights into Lebanon are violations of the agreement and I will take this up in Israel when I meet Prime Minister Sharon.

Q: What are the obstacles to the donor countries' conference on Lebanon?

SG: I think it's a question of planning it properly and fixing a date. There is quite a bit of good will in the international community for Lebanon. And I have discussed this issue with the President today and I will also discuss it with the Prime Minister. And I hope it will be possible to fix a date and organizing a meeting fairly soon, at least to fix the date and to plan for it.

Q: There are many Israeli violations of Blue Line and for the south of Lebanon. You've already asked the parties to respect the Blue Line, and the Security Council is engaged. How do you explain this?

SG: We need to have a full cooperation of the countries and parties concerned. They have undertaken to respect the Blue Line and we are asking them to live up to their word. The International Community will continue to put on the pressure and indicate each time there is a violation that there has been a violation. And I think Mr. de Mistura, my representative here, has been quite firm on that. And reports do go to the Council on a regular basis. Each time there is a violation, we do report and we will be vigilant and continue to monitor the situation. *****