Security Council meeting 4552-Resu.1

The President

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter from the representative of Saudi Arabia, in which he requests to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council's agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite that representative to participate in the discussion, without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure.

There being no objection, it is so decided.

Mr. Ryan (Ireland)

My delegation fully associates itself with the statement to be made shortly by the representative of Spain on behalf of the European Union.

The ever-deepening cycle of repression and violence in the Middle East makes it more than ever necessary to make rapid progress in the renewed efforts to reach a just, peaceful and comprehensive settlement. The situation in the Middle East is, as the Secretary-General has often said, one of the world's truly dangerous fault lines. Manifest injustice, instability, insecurity, a frozen political landscape: these pose an unacceptable and continuous threat to the region and to international peace and security. The international community has a clear responsibility and duty to move beyond rhetoric and language. Not to act now would be a dereliction of duty to the people of the region and to the cause of international peace and security.

We and others have said many times in this Chamber that no solution will be found through terrorism or any other form of violence or through military action. Ireland, for this reason, calls once again for an immediate end to Israeli military occupation; for the full implementation of resolutions 1402 (2002) and 1403 (2002); for an end to all forms of terrorism; for full support for efforts by the Palestinian Authority to institute reforms; for an end to the harassment of the presidential compound in Ramallah; for the early convening of an international conference; and for support for the ongoing efforts of the "quartet" and regional actors towards a peaceful solution.

Acts of terrorism are not only deeply wrong in themselves; they bring great suffering on the Palestinian people, and do not bring forward by one day the achievement of their legitimate aspirations. Ireland condemns all such acts.

The Government of Israel has every right to defend its citizens against terrorism. It must do so, however, through measures that are in accord with international humanitarian law. Repression and the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories will inevitably breed more of the hatred and resentment upon which terrorism feeds.

The violence and destruction carried out by the Israeli Defence Force at the Palestinian presidential compound in Ramallah are deeply reprehensible and, furthermore, are counterproductive. These attacks place in grave danger the physical security of Chairman Arafat, who is the elected leader of the Palestinian people, and therefore an essential partner in the peace process. They also militate against the efforts currently under way to achieve reform in the Palestinian Authority.

It makes no sense to call on the Palestinian Authority to take measures to combat terrorism, while at the same time destroying the means necessary to implement such measures and refusing the political perspective necessary to support them.

The present Government of Israel must be brought by its friends to a realization that its present reliance on close security control of the entire Palestinian people will not bring the Israeli people the security that they deserve. It failed in the past and it will fail again. The only way to peace is through an agreement that meets the legitimate national aspirations on all sides.

It is vitally important to put in place a framework for the long-delayed achievement by the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights and for the conclusion of a just and peaceful settlement between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, who are fated to live side by side, and between Israel and all its neighbours.

It is absolutely clear that the parties cannot now reach a settlement on their own. Current efforts on the part of the international community to help them find a way forward must be vigorously and urgently pursued. This is profoundly in the interest of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

This is not just a local issue, but one with major regional and indeed global implications. It is also, therefore, profoundly in the interest of the entire international community that a lasting and just settlement is reached. The time has come to convene an international conference. The aimlessness and drift that have taken hold must be shaken loose. Every day that passes without constructive action magnifies the risk that further and perhaps far greater violence will be unleashed.

There is no room for delay or preconditions. The three problems identified by the Secretary-General -- occupation, violence and economic misery -- have to be addressed, and addressed urgently, in parallel.

The blueprints are there, in abundance. In addition to resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), we have the Saudi initiative, endorsed at the Arab League Summit in Beirut, we have our own resolution 1397 (2002), we have the proposals made recently by the President of Egypt and we have statements of vision by regional and international leaders. In effect, a virtual consensus has emerged in the international community.

We need now to see the leadership and the statesmanship that would take advantage of this unprecedented moment in the history of the Middle East conflict and push it vigorously towards a just and lasting solution.

Mr. Lavrov (Russia)

Israeli and Palestinian relations continue to deteriorate. The suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and the Israeli reprisals against Palestinians, which have led to the death of people, are only strengthening the logic of confrontation. This does not help ensure security for both sides or their legitimate interests. Furthermore, all this seriously complicates efforts to achieve a political settlement of the crisis.

The most serious concern has been raised by the humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory. As a sponsor of the peace process and an active participant of the "quartet" of international mediators, Russia is undertaking energetic steps to remove Israeli and Palestinian relations from the vicious circle of confrontation. To that end, the Russian Government is in constant contact with the Israeli and Palestinian representatives and the leaders of the Middle Eastern States. The special representative of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is in the region almost constantly. The situation was discussed comprehensively within the framework of the meeting of the G-8 Foreign Ministers meeting of 12 June, held in Canada.

During the past month the Security Council has adopted several decisions that have set out the road map for overcoming the crisis and for stabilizing the situation, as well as for moving towards a political settlement, including the establishment of a Palestinian State to exist peacefully alongside Israel with internationally recognized borders. We believe that the priority task at this stage is the development of machinery for the parties' compliance with existing Security Council resolutions. That guides the efforts of the "quartet".

The coming meeting of the "quartet" on 14 June in Washington should be an important step in efforts designed to dissolve the tensions in Palestinian-Israeli relations and to establish the conditions for moving to a political settlement, including through holding an international conference on the Middle East. The Security Council's task is to help in these efforts in every way possible and to ensure it the support of the international community. Attempts to use the Council Chamber for mutual recrimination and all types of argumentation is counterproductive. It only makes the work of the "quartet" and many Arab countries to achieve compliance with United Nations resolutions more difficult.

The President

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of South Africa. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Kumalo (South Africa)

It is a tremendous joy to see you sitting in that chair, conducting this meeting, Mr. President. I must apologize. I have been practising my Arabic, but when I came here, I forgot all of it, so I cannot greet you in Arabic. But it is a tremendous joy to see you there, Sir. On behalf of our delegation, we wish to congratulate you on assuming the presidency for the month of June 2002.

On 2 June 2002, a ministerial delegation of the Non-Aligned Movement visited Ramallah and met with President Arafat in an expression of solidarity with the President and the people of Palestine.

President Arafat briefed the Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement on the latest developments, including the implementation of new restrictive measures against the Palestinian people, which have effectively resulted in the balkanization of the occupied territory.

The ministerial delegation of the Non-Aligned Movement reiterated the movement's outrage at the intensification of the illegal Israeli occupation, the killing, the vast destruction, the economic strangulation and other atrocities committed against Palestine and its people, including the continuation of settlement activities, especially in and around East Jerusalem.

The ministerial delegation of the Non-Aligned Movement reiterated the movement's support for the principle of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of their independent State with East Jerusalem as its capital. They reaffirmed the need for Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders.

The delegation of Ministers congratulated President Arafat on the signing of the Basic Law of Palestine, which is an important step towards the establishment of a constitutional law of Palestine.

The ministerial delegation of the Non-Aligned Movement also expressed its support for all international efforts aimed at achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting solution.

In that context, the Movement unequivocally affirmed its support for the Arab peace initiative and for the effort of the "quartet". The Non-Aligned Movement delegation of ministers noted that those efforts by the international community should form the basis of an international conference aimed at the establishment of a road map for the attainment of a lasting peace and on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978) and of the Madrid Conference terms of reference on land-for-peace principles. The Non-Aligned Movement delegation of ministers concluded the visit by wishing President Arafat and the people of Palestine success in their endeavours to find a peaceful solution to this long-standing conflict.

Now that the Non-Aligned Movement has actually visited Palestine and has seen for itself the situation on the ground, its sense of urgency is even greater. The Non-Aligned Movement remains convinced that something will have to be done about restarting peace negotiations in the Middle East, or the world will risk a regional conflagration with potentially devastating consequences.

As the Council is aware, the Israeli Army has once again attacked the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, directly endangering the life of President Arafat in the process. The fact that the Israeli Army enters and leaves Palestinian cities and refugee camps should be an even greater cause for alarm. The reason is that the Israeli Army believes that by maintaining a quiet siege of the Palestinian territories, it can fool the international community into believing that the situation is actually improving. In actual practice, Israel has long since carved the occupied territories into a series of bantustans, has forced the closure of offices of foreign representatives in Ramallah, and has barred diplomats and journalists from access to a number of sites in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The ongoing military incursions, curfews and blockades serve only to deepen the humanitarian crisis and to paralyse the already devastated Palestinian economy. Those violent actions, therefore, inevitably generate further frustration, desperation and violence. The time has come for Israel, the occupying Power, to acknowledge that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for self-determination cannot be thwarted by military might or by attacks on their legitimately elected leader.

We fail to see how the Palestinian Authority can be expected to implement effective reforms and to establish conditions of common security if the Security Council does nothing to prevent the wholesale destruction of the Palestinian Government's institutions. We therefore call on the Council to take action immediately to ensure full compliance with its resolutions, particularly resolutions 1402 (2002) and 1403 (2003).

Perhaps even more importantly, the Council should seriously consider visiting Palestine, as the Non-Aligned Movement has already done. The Council should speak to people on the ground and assess the situation for itself, as the Movement has done. Otherwise, the world will always conclude that the Council will remain idle while Israel pursues the hopeless task of trying to guarantee security by perpetrating illegal acts of collective punishment against a civilian population. All acts of violence against innocent civilians, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian civilians, should be condemned, regardless of who perpetrates them.

The Non-Aligned Movement wishes to reaffirm once more its principal position that Israel's security and peace in the Middle East will not be achieved until the people of Palestine have a State of their own with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The President

I thank the representative of South Africa for his kind words addressed to me.

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of Tunisia. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Mejdoub (Tunisia)

I should like to congratulate you, Sir, and sisterly Syria on assuming the presidency of the Security Council. We have every confidence in your abilities and in the success of your presidency.

There was every reason to call for the convening of this open Security Council meeting on the question of Palestine to follow the development of events and incidents in the Palestinian territories, which we believe must be perceived primarily as an issue of occupation. Addressing that issue requires, on the one hand, a political vision and, on the other, the dispatch of a neutral international third party.

First, this question must be considered primarily as an issue of occupation, with all its attendant practices, including the suppression of rights. It is the last remaining situation of occupation faced by the international community. The reason for that situation is the occupier's rejection of the international will, of Security Council resolutions and of all other international instruments and agreements, in particular those pertaining to occupation and its practices.

In our view, and in the view of the entire international community, the most important reason for this impasse is the Council's inability to deter the occupier and, by the means provided under the provisions of the Charter, to compel it to respect the resolutions of international legitimacy. We have come up against that fact again and again in the Council. The occupying Power continues to defy all international norms, while the Council regrettably remains a prisoner to a lack of the necessary political will. That, in turn, has freed Israel from responsibility and accountability under international norms and the texts and instruments of the United Nations itself, in particular those of the Council.

Secondly, in the light of the representative of Israel's statement this morning, we believe that to consider the question of Palestine from the perspective of the Palestinian people's reactions to the practices of occupation on the one hand and the occupying Power's escalation of those practices in response on the other distracts us from the core of the question and its political foundations. The issue is one of occupation, and all occupations generate legitimate resistance until they are brought to an end.

In the absence of a political vision for the resolution of the question of Palestine, how can we not expect the Palestinian people to reject occupation as a permanent situation and its practices as natural? Indeed, no actions to resist occupation took place following the Madrid and Oslo conferences, because the Palestinian people had pinned all their hopes and expectations on peace treaties that they expected would lead to a just, lasting and comprehensive political settlement of the question of Palestine.

However, without any light at the end of the political tunnel, as is the case now, it is pointless for any political or military authority, however influential, to wager continually on the security option alone in the absence of a political vision to resolve the question.

One need only read the op-ed article written by the head of the Israeli Government that appeared last Sunday in a United States newspaper to see that the Israeli Government has no intention of opening up the political horizon.

Thirdly, the only solution lies in opening up the political horizon, so that all parties can enjoy their rights and abide by their obligations. The role of the international community in this respect is to internationalize the settlement through an international peace conference encompassing all positive ideas, views and initiatives. Such a conference should be based on previous agreed frameworks, in order to realize the vision of two independent States coexisting within secure international borders, in keeping with the decisions of the international community and the resolutions of the Security Council.

Fourthly, along with a political vision, there must be a neutral third party on the ground to serve as a deterrent and as a security guarantee to all parties, in order to put an end to the cycle of action and reaction.

In this regard, it would be sufficient to follow up on the proposal made by the Secretary-General to set up a multinational force to separate the two sides, with a view to ensuring their security. Indeed, that security will never be guaranteed by the policy of fragmenting Palestinian territories -- separating Palestinian lands and isolating them from each other -- or by besieging the Palestinian people, restricting their movement and stifling their economy.

The situation today requires that we keep an open mind and deal with the political and humanitarian realities in all their dimensions, both present and future, in order to save the entire region from an unknown and potentially dangerous fate. In the context of the current delicate international situation, this requires that all of us be level-headed and that we look to the future from the perspective not of narrow interests but of peaceful coexistence among States, nations and civilizations.

The President

I thank the representative of Tunisia for the kind words he addressed to me.

The next speaker on my list is Mr. Papa Louis Fall, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, to whom the Security Council addressed an invitation under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Fall (Senegal)

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