Security Council – Work assessment under Belgium presidency (June 2007) – Letter from Belgium (excerpts)

    Letter dated 27 August 2007 from the Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

  I have the honour to enclose the assessment of the work of the Security Council during the presidency of Belgium for the month of June 2007 (see annex). This assessment has been prepared under my own responsibility.

  I should be grateful if the present letter and its annex could be circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Johan Verbeke

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

    Annex to the letter dated 27 August 2007 from the Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations addressed

to the President of the Security Council

[Original: English]

    Assessment of the work of the Security Council during the Presidency of Belgium (June 2007)

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  Asia

    The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question 

  On 1 June, the Secretary-General briefed the Security Council, in consultations of the whole, on the meeting of the Quartet held on 30 May in Berlin. The Secretary-General stated that he was deeply concerned by the escalation of violence in the occupied territories. He expressed appreciation for the role played by the League of Arab States and looked forward to future meetings between the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. He called for encouraging President Abbas in his efforts to calm the situation.

  On 20 June, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, Michael C. Williams, gave a briefing to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East. He qualified the region as highly volatile and unstable, referring notably to the violent seizure of de facto political authority in Gaza by Hamas and the heavy fighting between the Lebanese Armed Forces and Fatah al-Islam in northern Lebanon. The Special Coordinator underlined the need for the reopening of crossings in and out of Gaza and for providing humanitarian aid. He also urged the international community and Israel to politically and financially support the Palestinian Government, including through the release by Israel of withheld value added taxes and customs revenues. The briefing was followed by consultations of the whole.

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