Summary: Jerusalem: EUHR Solana's remarks to the press (13 August 2006: Jerusalem)
The following is an edited summary of remarks to the press by Mr Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), on 13 August in Jerusalem, at a joint press conference with Tzipi LIVNI, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel:
"I am very pleased to be back in Israel. I came last time less than a month ago. A lot of things have taken place in this period of time. I have been in Lebanon, as the Minister just said, just the day before yesterday, and I spent a whole day here in Israel, meeting the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, my friend.
I want to tell you that it is an important day today, yesterday, and tomorrow. These three days have been and are going to be very historic: the approval of the resolution in the United Nations; the decision by both governments, Israel and Lebanon, to support it, to accept the resolution; and the ceasefire which will start being operational tomorrow morning, at seven in the morning.
Let us hope very much that the consequences of these decisions are implemented, all of them - the ceasefire and the resolution. It is the responsibility of all the members of the United Nations to comply with the resolutions. You can be sure that we are going to tell the Europeans to help in the implementation of the resolutions in three lines of action, which are the most important, to in my mind: the humanitarian aspect, the help with the reconstruction of Lebanon, and what is important also,
very important, is the deployment of the force which will accompany the Lebanese force and the obligations that the resolution mandates.
We from the European Union will have important contingents of forces deployed under the UNIFIL mandate, which is new, which is reinforced, and which is more robust. And we will have, as I said, a good contingent, a solid contingent placed on the ground. With that I think that we will contribute to the restoration of Lebanon and we will contribute also to peace in the region.
[On the hostages held by Hezbollah:] As you know, I am in contact with the families and I am trying to do our best. I cannot give you details, but we are working very hard on that, and we hope very much that they will be back with their families alive.
Question: How long do you think that it will take for the multinational forces to be deployed in southern Lebanon? And, do you really expect it to be able to take action, military action, if it encounters Hizbullah resistance?
Answer: To the first question, how long it will take, I can tell you that, it is not our [EU] responsibility, but the responsibility of the United Nations to organize the force. But I can tell you that in New York planners from the European Union are already cooperating with the United Nations over the scheme of peace-keeping. We are already preparing, as soon as the planning is done by the United Nations, to deploy the 4,000 troops in a very, very short time, a minimum of time. So we
will try to do as much as possible, as rapidly as possible. But, again, this is not a European mission, but a United Nations mission, and you cannot expect that all the forces will be European. They will also be from other countries, who have already shown their interest to participate - countries from very far away, some of them: Malaysia, Indonesia, with whom I have been talking in the last period of time - I have even visited those countries, and they will probably deploy forces. Australia
will probably deploy forces, Canada may deploy forces. So there will also be countries which are not members of the European Union.
The second part of the question, the obligation of that force, is clearly defined in the Security Council resolution. As you know, it is not Chapter Seven, it is Chapter Six, and therefore, the mandate for the rules of engagement, talking in a more technical manner, corresponds to Chapter Six, not Chapter Seven.
Question: I would like to ask Javier Solana. I think that you have mentioned in Ramallah today that the European Union is working on a plan to reach to a comprehensive peace or any kind of talking which includes other parties who are in conflict right now, in the region. Can you elaborate on this and have you mentioned this plan before?
Answer: What I have said, and what I keep saying, and you will hear me repeating that over and over and over again, is what you read in the resolution in the penultimate paragraph. It talks about peace in the Middle East. It is necessary to have an approach now, which is comprehensive and it looks also, in a very direct manner to the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. That is very clearly stated in the resolution, and I will repeat that very many times, because I believe in it.
Question: The impression that we have been getting from the Israeli speakers is that the resolution does not say Chapter Six, namely the enforcement capability, but in its words, it is almost that. Now Europe seems to be creating the impression that it is actually Chapter Six and no enforcement. Am I right in understanding what you are saying?
Answer: I do not want to create any confusion. I am just stating what is in the resolution and I cannot go any further. As you know very well, it was a long debate about Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, and at the end the agreement was Chapter Six. Chapter Six has a type of rules of engagement which is different form Chapter Seven rules of engagement. That does not mean that the force is a weak force or not a robust force. It is a robust force, to implement a Chapter Six resolution.
Question: What makes it a robust force?
Answer: There may be moments, in which the situation requires action and you have to be prepared to act, and to be robust.
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