SECRETARY-GENERAL AUTHORIZES IMMEDIATE MEASURES TO

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001675 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC KUNR PREL UNGA SUBJECT: SECRETARY-GENERAL AUTHORIZES IMMEDIATE MEASURES TO IMPLEMENT SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1701 REF: USUN NEW YORK 01549 ¶1. In his 17 August 2006 letter to the President of the General Assembly (A/60/986),Secretary-General Kofi Annan outlined the series of extraordinary measures he has authorized in order to meet the needs of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expansion as per Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). The measures include: a waiver of the two-month notification process to Member States for gratis personnel in order to efficiently provide potential troop-contributing states with military planners; the ability to rapidly reassign civilian personnel without advertising the posts; a suspension of the three-month limit on temporary deployment of civilian staff; an immediate increase in the level of main-commodity contracts for UNIFIL and UNFICYP; and an increase in procurement delegations of UNIFIL and UNFICYP for six months. ¶2. To further accommodate rapid UNIFIL expansion, the SG plans to use the 2006-2007 UNIFIL appropriation of $97,579,600 flexibly, and has also asked the ACABQ for authority to enter into commitments not to exceed $50 million (reftel). Additionally, in the sixty-first session the SG will request commitment authority, with assessment, from the General Assembly for the interim period of 11 August 2006 through 31 March 2007. The interim financing request would to accommodate UNIFIL for the next few months. ¶3. These measures are deemed necessary by the Secretary-General in order to significantly increase the SIPDIS support infrastructure and sustainment capabilities of UNIFIL, and to rapidly deploy troops within the allotted time frame, as required by Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). ¶4. The increase in level of main-commodity contracts will be used primarily for fuel, rations, water and accommodation for UNIFIL and also UNFICYP, since UNFICYP will be providing initial forward logistics support to UNIFIL. ¶5. Further support requirements to implement SC resolution 1701 (2006) will be assessed by a planning team currently being deployed to UNIFIL. BOLTON