Yehuda Blum, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, declared today that Israel does not want “to stay in Lebanon or in any part thereof.” But, he said, “we are entitled to demand that proper arrangements be made so that Lebanon should not serve again as a staging ground for terrorist attacks against Israel’s civilian population.”
Blum, who made this statement during the course of the Mideast debate in the General Assembly, reaffirmed Israel’s stated position that its forces will not pull out from Lebanon until concrete arrangements are made that would stop hostile actions from Lebanon against Israel.
“No one in the Middle East is more eager than Israel to see Lebanese sovereignty restored, its internal strife resolved, the Syrian occupiers removed, the PLO subdued and freedom and tranquility returned to that war-torn land,” Blum said.
Charging that the General Assembly, by its “repetitious and distorted presentation of the Arab-Israeli conflict” has no intention of coming to grips with the reality in the Mideast, Blum claimed that “the problem of the Palestinian Arabs is clearly not the central issue of the area or indeed of our times. Bitter and complex as it is, the Arab-Israel conflict is but one focus of Mideast tensions and violence among many, and as such, is far from being the most crucial.”
The Assembly was expected to conclude tonight its Mideast debate. But it will vote on draft resolutions on the Mideast at a later date.
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