UAE welcomes preservation of UNIFIL’s independence in UN Security Council vote

 

Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, the UAE's permanent representative to the UN in New York, today praised the UN Security Council for extending the UN Interim Force in Lebanon's (UNIFIL) mandate, which included a number of significant UAE recommendations. In a statement defending the UAE's vote in favour of resolution 2695, Ambassador Nusseibeh emphasised that improving the UN Security Council's support for UNIFIL's efforts to uphold peace and stability in South Lebanon and the surrounding area was the UAE's top priority during the discussions that led to today's adoption.

The UAE proposed language that emphasised UNIFIL's independence and emphasised the Government of Lebanon's duty to make it possible for the Force to have unrestricted access to "all locations of interest" in its operational area.The UAE also succeeded in keeping the emphasis from last year on unlimited "announced and unannounced patrols" by UN soldiers and included, for the first time, a specific mention of the need for UNIFIL to enter illegal fire ranges.

The needless exclusion of a "unqualified reference" to Israeli occupation of the Lebanese village of Al-Ghajar from the resolution, according to Ambassador Nusseibeh, was a source of sadness for the UAE. She also criticised the Council's reluctance to declare Hezbollah a threat to UNIFIL's capacity to carry out its mission. Hezbollah's repeated violations of UNSC Resolutions 1559 and 1701, among other things, are to blame for the Blue Line tensions growing to a "level unseen since the 2006 war," according to Ambassador Nusseibeh. The organization's contribution to maintaining Lebanon's crisis and hindering the investigation into