UNSC ADOPTS RESOLUTION EXTENDING UNFIL'S MANDATE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000797 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPKO UN IS LE SUBJECT: UNSC ADOPTS RESOLUTION EXTENDING UNFIL'S MANDATE FOR ONE YEAR REF: STATE 89537 ¶1. (U) The Council adopted unanimously UNSCR 1884 on August 27, thereby renewing UNIFIL's mandate until August 31, 2010. Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US co-sponsored the resolution. There were no explanations of vote by Council members. (Note: Text of UNSCR 1884 will be posted at www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc resolutions09.htm. End note.) ¶2. (SBU) After the adoption, both the Israeli and Lebanese Perm Reps addressed the Council. Israeli Perm Rel Shalev welcomed the Council's decision to extend UNIFIL's mandate. She highlighted the July 14 arms cache explosion at Khirbet Selim in southern Lebanon, quoting directly from the Secretary-General's August 6 letter to the Security Council in which he said the explosion was a clear violation of UNSCR 1701 and that Hizballah forces had been present near the site. She said that there is evidence that Hizballah constitutes a clear threat to international peace and security. She called for the area south of the Litani River to be free of armed personnel and weapons aside from those authorized in UNSCR 1701. She cited Israel's appreciation of UNIFIL, its troop contributing countries, and its Force Commander and underscored Israel's dedication to the full implementation of UNSCR 1701. ¶3. (SBU) The Lebanese Perm Rep Salam thanked the Council for renewing UNIFIL's mandate without amendment, noting that Lebanon has been the victim of repeated Israeli aggression since 1978. He praised UNIFIL for its work and thanked the troop contributing countries, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and the UNIFIL Force Commander for their leadership. Three years after the adoption of UNSCR 1701, he said, much remains to be implemented. He highlighted Israel's continuing violations of Lebanese sovereignty as evidence of Israel's obstruction of the implementation of UNSCR 1701. He cited daily Israeli air violations, its lack of a withdrawal from northern Ghajar, the lack of a resolution of the Sheb'a Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills, and the operation of Israeli spy networks in Lebanon. Salam then turned to Israeli Defense Minister Barak's comments that Israel did not strike hard enough at Lebanon's infrastructure during the 2006 conflict and would not make that same mistake in a future conflict and contrasted those statements to UNSCR ¶1701. Salam then listed Lebanese civilian casualties and the damage to Lebanese civilian infrastructure from the 2006 conflict, for example enumerating the number of schools damaged in Israeli air strikes. Salam called for such threats to be condemned. (Note: In his remarks, Salam did not refer to the July 14 arms cache explosion or make any implicit or explicit reference to Hizballah and its recent activities and statements. End note.) RICE