Mideast situation – GA general debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly

Fifty-fifth session

7th plenary meeting

Friday, 8 September 2000, 9 a.m.

New York

The meeting was called to order at 9:05 a.m.

Addresses on the occasion of the Summit (continued)

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The Acting Co-Chairperson (Finland): The Assembly will next hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Sélim Tadmoury, Chairman of the delegation of Lebanon.

Mr. Tadmoury (Lebanon): Lebanon is particularly proud to participate in this historically significant Summit, especially after the recent liberation of its southern part, thanks to the steadfastness and the resistance of the Lebanese people and to the support of the international community. The Israeli occupation, which lasted for more than 22 years, witnessed the loss of thousands of innocent civilian lives and inflicted extensive damage on the country’s most vital infrastructures. Insidiously, it paralyzed Lebanon’s economy on the whole, impeded its socio-economic development and inhibited its historic contribution to human civilization, a contribution which Lebanon had been extending for 5,000 years.

Lebanon considers the liberation of its territory from the Israeli occupation an incomplete step. It must be followed by a solution to the question of the Palestinian refugees, particularly those whom Lebanon has been hosting on its soil for more than 50 years. Our ultimate objective is to reach a just, comprehensive and lasting peace, based on the Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights up to the line of 4 June 1967, according to resolutions of international legitimacy and to the terms of reference of the 1991 Madrid Conference.

Lebanon also calls upon the international community to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights and, above all, the right to self-determination and to establish their independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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The meeting rose at 2 p.m.