- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 11 May 1989 (6th Sitting) (see Doc. 6049, report of the Political Affairs Committee, Rapporteur : Mr Martinez). Text adopted by the Assembly on 11 May 1989 (6th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Recalling its
Resolution 869 (1986) on the situation in Lebanon :
1.1 appealing to the whole of the international community to recognise that all foreign involvement should be conducted within a structure of international support ;
1.2 exhorting all interested parties to recognise that the virtual destruction of Lebanon will inevitably serve as a source of increasing regional instability ; and
1.3 urging the governments of member states of the Council of Europe 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 ;
2. While supporting the recent efforts of the League of Arab States to establish a cease-fire, regrets that no progress has been made in these fields and that a clear deterioration, from which both Christian and Muslim civilian populations were the first to suffer, resulted from the failure of the election of a new President of the Lebanese Republic provided for by the Constitution which should have taken place before 23 September 1988 when President Gemayel's mandate ended ;
3. Recalls the Council of Europe's commitment, reiterated on 12 April in an appeal by the Political Affairs Committee, to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of a Lebanon free of all foreign troops not belonging to the United Nations interim force (UNIFIL), while recalling the essential role which UNIFIL continues to play even in particularly difficult conditions, making its presence in Lebanon more necessary than ever ;
4. Deeply regrets the death on 16 April 1989, during shellfire, of the Spanish Ambassador in Beirut, while he - like others - remained at his post, and stresses the importance of maintenance by Council of Europe member states of an active diplomatic presence in Lebanon ;
5. Expresses its support for the efforts of the governments of several Council of Europe member states, as well as several non-governmental organisations, to bring help to the suffering populations ;
6. Considers that fifteen years of civil war clearly constitute an element of the general Middle East problem, which can only be solved in the framework of an overall settlement for which a precondition is the rapid convocation of :
6.1 a summit meeting of Arab countries, and
6.2 an international Middle East peace conference in which the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council will need to play a decisive role, by decisions in conformity with international law, including the right to self-determination, in putting an end to the suffering - intolerable for the whole of the international community - of the populations of a small country ;
7. Calls for the urgent evacuation of the foreign armed forces, namely those of Syria and Israel, currently occupying Lebanon ;
8. In consequence, with regard at the present time to Syria, requests the immediate cessation of its armed intervention in Lebanon of which the civilian population is the victim ;
9. Strongly encourages humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Lebanon and condemns any military action designed to impede it ;
10. Solemnly reaffirms the imprescriptible right of the Lebanese people to determine for themselves the democratic restoration of the state and of their security and freedoms.
