Debate in Extraordinary Conference of Presidents with Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr Siniora

Speech delivered on Thu 28th Sep 2006

Graham Watson, on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Mr President, I first visited the Prime Minster's country 25 years ago. I found in Beirut and in the villages and in the refugee camps further south a country scarred by conflict, at that time between the PLO and the South Lebanon Army.

Prime Minister, the destruction of this summer's war - 34 days of fighting leaving 200 000 people displaced, infrastructure destroyed and hope hard to find - must worsen the situation that your people have been through. The legacy of war will be with you for some time to come: the unexploded munitions, the cluster bomblets - perhaps up to one million of them. I understand that since the end of the war some 18 people have been killed and a further 80 injured by unexploded munitions, a quarter of them children.

The existence of the State of Israel is something that is difficult to debate in the country from which I come. The Balfour Declaration favoured the establishment in Palestine of a national state for the Jewish people. That said, it was clearly understood that nothing should be done that might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. That understanding has not been honoured. A state that was born of terror lives in terror. I hope that the Israeli defence forces will pull out of Lebanon by next week and I hope that the Israelis will withdraw from the occupied territories in Palestine so that we can find a solution for peace.

However, I think few of us here see the conflict in the way you have presented it to us today. Israel exists. It has an internationally recognised right to exist. It is regularly attacked, as it was this summer, by Hezbollah, with the taking of Israeli soldiers. Its people are regularly abused in the press across the Arab world. It is threatened with obliteration by a head of government.

I share your hope that the Shebaa Farms is the only issue, but I know that last month Hezbollah said it would not disarm in conformity with UN Resolution 1559, even if Israel pulled out. Moreover, last week its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said that armed resistance would be necessary even after a possible Israeli withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms.

Prime Minister, all of us here want to see peace in your region; a region in which the three monotheistic religions regularly confront each other, confrontations that spill over into armed conflict. We believe that the sending of a peacekeeping force from Europe is only a sticking-plaster remedy. We want to see you working with us and working with Israel to build the kind of institutions that will anchor peace in the long term. We want to see a Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank, jointly owned and managed by both sides but working on development projects where they are most needed. We want to see a conference on security and cooperation in the Middle East and in Europe; the establishment of institutions such as universities to promote common understanding; and perhaps all of it overseen by the institution in which we have invested so much capital, the EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly.

I praise you for the efforts you have made for peace. I praise you for the 7-point plan you put forward in Rome. I hope that we can work with you in achieving our joint aim. But let us make sure, too, that we are working to respect the rights of all of the people of the unhappy region in which your country is situated.