  {"id":176330,"date":"2001-12-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=176330"},"modified":"2019-03-11T20:18:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:18:14","slug":"auto-insert-176330","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-176330\/","title":{"rendered":"Mideast situation\/Lebanon\/Minefields &#8211; Letter from Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>Letter dated 6 December 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Israel<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>to the Âé¶¹APP addressed to the Secretary-General<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;In the last several months, false allegations have been made regarding the disclosure of information on the location of minefields in southern Lebanon. In order to clarify the facts relating to this matter, Israel would like to convey the following:<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;On 24 May 2000, Israeli forces completely withdrew from southern Lebanon in full and confirmed compliance with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unispal.un.org\/pdfs\/E25DAE8E3CE54FB5852560E50079C708.pdf\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Security Council resolution 425 (1978)<\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">. On 29 May 2000, only five days after Israel&#8217;s withdrawal, Israel Defence Force (IDF) liaison officers held a series of meetings with the senior command of the Âé¶¹APP Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and transferred all the information available to the IDF, as well as detailed maps previously used by the IDF, regarding the location in southern Lebanon of minefields and areas suspected of containing mines and other explosive devices. This included all information regarding mines or other explosive devices planted by other elements operating in the area. No efforts were spared to assist UNIFIL and to clarify all questions relating, inter alia, to specific map markings. <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Upon receiving the Israeli maps and files, the UNIFIL senior command signed official confirmations of transfer of that information.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;As is widely known, southern Lebanon has served as a breeding ground for terrorist activities for many years. Throughout this long period, large quantities of mines, booby traps and other devices have been laid by terrorist groups and individual terrorists. Those mines and explosive devices were never marked, mapped or reported, nor were the areas fenced off in order to avoid civilian casualties. Today, these mines and booby traps continue to pose a serious threat to the population of southern Lebanon.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Pursuant to Security Council resolution 425 (1978), and in accordance with international law, it is the responsibility of the Government of Lebanon to establish effective control and authority in the area and restore international peace and security to southern Lebanon. Clearly, the failure to fulfil these responsibilities with respect, inter alia, to minefields, endangers the civilian population in the area.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Israel remains willing to assist and cooperate with UNIFIL should any further clarifications be required with regard to the information it has transferred. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter circulated as a document of the Security Council.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:right;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">(<i>Signed<\/i>) Yehuda <strong>Lancry<\/strong><br \/>\nPermanent Representative<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Letter dated 6 December 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the Âé¶¹APP addressed to the Secretary-General &nbsp;&nbsp;In the last several months, false allegations have been made regarding the disclosure of information on the location of minefields in southern Lebanon. In order to clarify the facts relating to this matter, Israel would like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-176330\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897,933],"document-category":[2841],"document-source":[1362,1949],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1857],"entity":[1985,1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-176330","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","country-lebanon","document-category-letter","document-source-security-council","document-source-united-nations-interim-force-in-lebanon-unifil","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-incidents","entity-state","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/176330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/176330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=176330"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=176330"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=176330"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=176330"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=176330"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=176330"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=176330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}