Council of Europe – Situation in Lebanon – Parliamentary Assembly resolution/Non-UN document


RESOLUTION 869 (1986)[1]

on the situation in Lebanon

 

The Assembly,

1. Recalling its Resolution 783 (1982) on the Lebanese crisis, its Resolution 804 (1983) on the situation in the Middle East, and its Recommendation 1025 (1986) on the situation of the Palestine refugees ;

2. Recalling also the resolutions adopted by other international and European bodies, in particular Resolutions 425, 508 and 509 of the United Nations Security Council, and the resolutions adopted by the European Parliament on 20 February 1986 (on the political situation in the Middle East) and 13 March 1986 (on the situation in Lebanon) ;

3. Emphasising its own responsibility as a forum for dialogue sought by several leaders of the region concerned, including this year Mr Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, on 28 January, and Mr Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel, on 22 April ;

4. Observing that a new series of murderous car-bomb attacks, whose victims are mainly Lebanese civilians, a new outburst of the Palestinian refugee ‘‘war of the camps'' and further hostage-takings, often involving nationals of Council of Europe member states, serve merely to confirm a situation which its Political Affairs Committee deplored in a communiqué issued in September l985, noting ‘‘the progressive collapse of the authority of the Lebanese State and the disastrous fate of the civilian population, both Muslim and Christian, exposed (…) to a long succession of murderous attacks and bombardments, not only in both sides of a once more divided capital and within Palestinian refugee camps, but also in the region under Syrian ‘control' and in the ‘security zone' maintained by Israel in the South'' ;

5. Regretting that the Israeli air force has resumed its bombing of Palestinian camps and positions in the Sidon area and the Bekaa valley, and localities under Druze control in the Chouf mountains ;

6. Appreciating, however, that Mr Shimon Peres, in his statement to the Assembly, identified the ‘‘four challenges'' facing the Middle East as being religious extremism, terrorism, economic crisis and the Israeli-Arab conflict ;

7. Welcoming a new tendency on the part of the Israeli authorities to envisage for the international community a wider role in the solving of all these problems, although they continue to make the task of the United Nations interim force (UNIFIL) difficult and dangerous in South Lebanon ;

8. Urging the Government of Lebanon to do its utmost to resume its authority and responsibility in the south of the country and, in co-operation with UNIFIL, to put an end to terrorist attacks into Israel originating from that part of the country ;

9. Appealing to the Government of Israel, as part of such a process, to lend its active support to UNIFIL, to facilitate the deployment of the force up to the international border between Lebanon and Israel, in accordance with the mandate given to it by the United Nations, and to participate in the implementation of the latest Security Council Resolution concerning the presence of all unauthorised forces ;

10. Fearing that the withdrawal of UNIFIL entails a risk of new conflicts in the region, while all Lebanese communities wish it to be maintained or strengthened ;

11. Concerned at the fact that some countries have never contributed to UNIFIL, and the tendency among the others to reduce their contribution, to withdraw their troops or to put the mandate of this international force in question ;

12. Taking note of the serious decline in 1985 and 1986 of the Lebanese economy, which had long withstood the devastating effects of a civil war raging for over ten years ;

13. Noting that the hostage-takings among Western nationals have had the effect of restricting UNRWA's admirable humanitarian work, by forcing it to withdraw its international staff temporarily from the western sector of the capital at the beginning of May ;

14. Confident that Lebanon will one day be called upon to resume its historical role as a bridge between the Arab and Western worlds,

15. Reiterates its attachment to the Lebanese people, as well as to the unity, integrity and sovereignty of an independent, multi-confessional and democratic Lebanon ;

16. Hopes that the truce among the various Lebanese communities decided at the beginning of September leads to a genuine internal peace process and to the restoration of the authority of the Lebanese State ;

17. Urges the various communities in Lebanon to join forces with the Lebanese Government to accelerate the implementation of institutional, social and economic reforms as a necessary part of the peace process ;

18. Calls upon the whole of the international community to recognise that all foreign involvement should be conducted within a structure of international support, and urges all interested parties to recognise that the virtual destruction of Lebanon will inevitably serve as a source of increasing international instability, and to act upon that recognition with urgency ;

19. Expresses the wish that President Reagan and Secretary General Gorbachev will take the opportunity afforded by their second meeting, which should be held before the end of the year, to combine their efforts with those of Europe to bring this small country's martyrdom to an end, in particular through the halting of outside intervention, the conclusion of a ceasefire and the release of the hostages ;

20. Urges the governments of member states of the Council of Europe, once peace has been restored, to do their utmost to promote national reconciliation and reconstruction, an essential feature of which will be the possibility for the Lebanese people to exercise its elementary human rights, in particular the right to express its opinion freely on an institutional reform, backed by sound international guarantees, which would safeguard each community's rights.

[1]Assembly debate on 25 September 1986 (20th Sitting) (see Doc. 5623, report of the Political Affairs Committee).

Text adopted by the Assembly on 25 September 1986 (20th Sitting).


Document symbol: PACE Resolution 869 (1986)
Document Type: Resolution
Document Sources: Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly
Subject: Peacekeeping, Refugees and displaced persons, Situation in Lebanon
Publication Date: 25/09/1986
2019-03-12T18:34:49-04:00

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