Thank you very much indeed Mr President. I would like to join
other colleagues in thanking the Under-Secretary-General for his
briefing and I’d like to join other colleagues in making clear
that the United Kingdom also condemns Hizballah’s building of
tunnels leading into Israel. As others have noted Mr President,
it is a clear violation by Hizballah of Security Council
resolution 1701. It threatens Israel’s security, it threatens
Lebanon’s security and it threatens regional stability. We are
clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against
Hizballah and all other armed militia groups which put the
security of Israel at risk. All Israelis, all Lebanese, have the
right to live in peace without fear for their security.
For too long Mr President, as other speakers have noted, we have
witnessed Hizballah blatantly disregard UN resolutions. Their
continued possession of weapons outside of Lebanese state
control; their reported attempts to acquire dangerous new missile
capabilities; as well as their statements threatening Israel,
remain deeply alarming. Without an end to Hizballah’s illegal
activities in Lebanon, and the region, we will continue to see
regional stability threatened.
The United Kingdom recognises the important work carried out by
UNIFIL in maintaining calm and stability along the Blue Line over
the last 12 years and we pay tribute to those nations who have
provided commanders and troops for UNIFIL throughout that time.
But the existence of the tunnels reinforces the importance of
ensuring UNIFIL’s mandate is effective and strong, and that it
has full access to all areas within its operation. We condemn any
attempts at restricting UNIFIL’s freedom of movement. We
recognise that there is a question of access to private property
in the context of investigating where the tunnels are and we
recognise this can be difficult. But it is not impossible to
resolve this issue and we look forward to a workable solution
being found.
We welcome UNIFIL’s response and its actions to monitor the
situation in addition, and maintain calm, including by deploying
additional troops and liaison teams to sensitive locations along
the Blue Line. It is vitally important that UNIFIL continues to
liaise closely with the Lebanese and Israeli authorities. We call
on the Lebanese state, and in particular the Lebanese Armed
Forces, as the sole and legitimate defenders of Lebanon, to take
appropriate action to neutralise the tunnels as a matter of
urgency, working closely with UNIFIL. And we encourage Israel to
continue sharing with UNIFIL, to the fullest extent possible, any
information that would assist UNIFIL and the LAF in taking
action. Where there are difficulties we urge all parties to work
together constructively to overcome these. It is in neither
side’s interest for the situation to escalate.
Mr President, the United Kingdom has been clear in this Council
on many occasions that we condemn Israeli violations of Lebanese
sovereignty, whether by land, sea or air. Such actions undermine
confidence and stability and we call for all relevant Security
Council resolutions, in particular 1559 and 1701, to be respected
in full. In this regard, the UK welcomes the commitments by both
Israel and Lebanon including the recent statement from the
Lebanese Foreign Ministry on the full implementation of 1701,
refusal to accept any violations and respect of the Blue Line.
Mr President, finally the UK calls on all sides to continue to
abide by their commitments and to avoid actions and rhetoric that
could destabilise the situation and region.
Thank you Mr President.
