Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-06-Speech-3-157"
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"en.20060906.21.3-157"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, as you have said, the fact that we have succeeded in obtaining a ceasefire is already an important result in a war that, in just a few weeks, has caused a great many deaths, destroyed infrastructure and the environment, and was threatening to engulf the whole region.
This initial result is the outcome of a European initiative in close cooperation with the United Nations. Allow me to mention the active role played by my own country, Italy, and also by the Finnish Presidency and by France, which is to lead UNIFIL during this phase.
The challenge, however, remains much more arduous and requires the whole of Europe to make not just a military effort, but a political and diplomatic one. For the first time, Europe could demonstrate a united political will and the determination to play a constructive role in the Mediterranean and Middle East by equipping itself with the appropriate tools.
It is a question of supporting Lebanon in the difficult process of independence and sovereignty, helping it to continue along the democratic path that raised so much hope during the ‘Beirut spring’. The Lebanese army has to regain control of the whole country, including the south, and it has to exercise a monopoly on military strength to the exclusion of Hizbollah, which in recent times has become a parallel power.
Such an outcome requires everyone to take responsibility, starting with Syria, which has a role in the region, while Israel must be persuaded to abandon the idea of the indiscriminate use of force, because that is not a path that can guarantee its security.
It has already been said that the Palestinian issue lies at the heart of the Middle East situation. Europe’s task is to fully accept the responsibility that all the parties in the conflict now attribute to it: to support the Palestinians’ difficult internal process of forming a new government that will enable them to come out of isolation and win back the resources that Israel must return to them. It could be the beginning of a new climate of relations between the two sides, but first of all the spiral of violence needs to stop.
The years of experience that we have acquired show that the two sides cannot do it alone: the international community’s presence is essential, and so we could deploy the peacekeeping troops that are in Lebanon today to Gaza and the West Bank tomorrow. It could be a first step towards restoring that agreement, in the run-up to an international conference that may lead to a stable, lasting solution for the entire area, as the President-in-Office mentioned."@en1
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