Mideast situation/UNIFIL – Letter fro Italy

UNITED NATIONS Distr.

GENERAL

SECURITY S/13907

COUNCIL 25 April 1980

ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

______________________________________________________________________________

LETTER DATED 24 APRIL 1980 FROM THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ITALY

TO THE UNITED NATIONS ADDRESSED TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

I have the honour to inform you that the nine member States of the European Community issued in Luxembourg on 22 April 1980 the following statement on the situation in southern Lebanon and the position of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):

“1. The Foreign Ministers of the nine member States of the European Community, meeting in Luxembourg on 22 April, considered recent developments in relation to the United Nations peace-keeping Force in southern Lebanon.

“2. They expressed their profound revulsion at the recent killing of soldiers of the Force and especially at the brutal and cold-blooded murder on 18 April by the irregular forces of Major Haddad of two unarmed soldiers of the Irish contingent.

“3. The Ministers recalled their statement of 11 September 1979 reaffirming their support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and calling on all parties to give full assistance to the UNIFIL operation and to respect the decisions of the Security Council.  They express very serious concern that armed attacks continue to be made on the UNIFIL troops, installations and equipment and that obstacles continue to be placed in the way of the Force in its efforts to carry out effectively, and throughout the whole of its area of operation, the peace-keeping mandate it received from the Security Council.

“4. The Nine believe it is vital that steps be taken to ensure that UNIFIL is permitted to carry out fully the tasks assigned to it, and they support the efforts of the troop-contributing countries to ensure that this will now be done.  They note that it is the intention of the Security Council, as stated on behalf of its member States by the President of the Council on 18 April, ‘to take such determined action as the situation calls for to enable UNIFIL to take immediate and total control of the entire area of operation up to the internationally recognized boundaries’.

“5. The Foreign Ministers of the Nine call strongly on all concerned to give their fullest support to the measures decided on by the Security Council, so that UNIFIL may be in a position to carry out in full the important peace-keeping mission with which it has been entrusted on behalf of the international community.”

I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Umberto LA ROCCA

Ambassador