Lebanese Foreign Minister Found Boutros warned today that the unstable situation in southern Lebanon threatens the whole Middle East and possibly the entire world. Addressing the General Assembly, Boutros said that without appropriate solution to the Palestinian question there will be no peace in Lebanon.
He asserted that one of the major reasons for the Lebanese tragedy is the absence of a solution of the Palestine question. He observed that the excessive number of Palestinians in Lebanon and the unrest in the Middle East region made Lebanon “pay the price.”
Boutros said that it is the duty of the world community to help the Palestinian people gain its rights, particularly its right to self-determination and a homeland in Palestine. Lebanon is determined to live as a unified country of a unified people, he said.
Boutros added that although the Lebanese were aware of the effects of the Palestinian question on the tragedy in southern Lebanon, they could not accept that Lebanon alone should bear the burden of “the consequences of the hesitations and evasions which prevent a solution of the Middle East crisis.”
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