Lebanon situation/Non-Lebanese armed groups – SecGen eighteenth report under S/RES/1701 – Report (excerpts)

Eighteenth report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) 

 I.  Introduction

1.  The current report provides a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) since the last report of the Secretary-General (S/2011/715) was issued on 14 November 2011.

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 II.  Implementation of resolution 1701 (2006) 

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 C.  Disarming armed groups 

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41. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and Fatah al-Intifada continue to maintain a number of military bases outside the control of the Lebanese State. All but one of these bases are located along the Lebanese-Syrian border, compromising Lebanese sovereignty and governmental authority and impeding the State’s ability to effectively monitor and control the eastern land border between Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic. In spite of the National Dialogue’s decision in 2006, reaffirmed in its subsequent meetings and in the policy platform of the current Government of Lebanon, there has been no progress towards dismantling these bases during the reporting period. I have repeatedly called on the Lebanese authorities to dismantle the PFLP-GC and Fatah al-Intifada military bases and on the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic to cooperate with such efforts.

42. The situation in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon has remained precarious. Occasional security incidents and inter-factional clashes, especially in Ain al-Hilweh, continued to occur. Successive attempts on the life of a senior Fatah military commander there led to the death of two security officials associated with him during the reporting period.

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 V.  Observations

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76. I welcome the visit of the Minister of Social Affairs of Lebanon to the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh on 24 January 2012, the first visit by a Cabinet member in six years, and his signing of a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East that facilitates the provision of services to some of the most vulnerable constituencies in the camps. In this vein, I urge the Government of Lebanon to reinvigorate the effort to improve the living conditions of Palestine refugees in Lebanon, without prejudice to the resolution of the refugee question in the context of a comprehensive regional peace agreement. As I said during my recent visit to Lebanon, as a founding member of the United Nations and a key contributor to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Lebanon must be at the forefront of ensuring full respect for human rights and dignity.

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83. The regional environment in which the effort to implement resolution 1701 unfolds is of critical importance to its success. This does not only apply to developments in the Syrian Arab Republic and their reverberations in Lebanon and, potentially, along the Blue Line. I call on both Israel and Lebanon to take the necessary steps to achieve what resolution 1701 (2006) terms a long-term solution governing their relations. It continues to be my profound conviction that achieving that solution and ensuring the full territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon cannot and should not be dissociated from the need to exert all possible efforts to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

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