UNITED
NATIONS

General

Security

Assembly

Council

Distr.

GENERAL
A/37/257
S/15132
28 May 1982
ORIGINAL:

SECURITY COUNCIL
Thirty-seventh
year

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Thirty-seventh
session
Item 34 of the preliminary
list*
THE SITUATION
IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Letter

dated 27 May
to the United

1982 from the Permanent
Representative
of
Nations
addressed
to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to refer
Representative
of Lebanon dated
(A/37/228)
and to the President

ENGLISH

to the two identical
letters
from
17 May 1982 and addressed
to Your
of the Security
Council
(S/15087),

In those letters
the Permanent
"in the most unequivocal
terms"
the
terrorism
originating
from Lebanese

Representative
responsibility
territory.

Israel

the Permanent
Excellency
respectively.

of Lebanon sought
of his Government

to disclaim
for acts of

The untenability
of the position
adopted
in those letters
is only heightened
the fact that in the concluding
paragraphs
of his letters
the Permanent
Representative
of Lebanon
purports
to rely on the Israel-Lebanon
General
Armistice
It should
be recalled
that
Agreement
of 23 March 1949 - defunct
since 1967.
article
III,
paragraph
3, of that Agreement
provided
that:
by

"NO

warlike

controlled

act or act of hostility
by one of the Parties

to

shall
this

be conducted
from territory
Agreement
against
the other

Party."

In any case, Lebanon's
duty to prevent
its territory
from being used for
terrorist
attacks
against
other
States
is based on general
international
law.
has been stated
in Oppenheim-Lauterpacht's
well-known
treatise
on International
"States
are under a duty to prevent
and suppress
against
foreign
Governments
as assumes the form
or attempts
to commit common crimes
against
life
(8th edition,
Vol. I, 1955, pp. 292-293).
*

82-15214

A/37/50/Rev.l.
3382e

(E)

such subversive
of armed hostile
or property."

activity
expeditions,

As
Law:

 A/37/257
S/l5132
English
Page 2
This principle
has been embraced
by the General
Assembly
on numerous
occasions,
including,
for example,
the Declaration
on the Inadmissibility
of
Intervention
in the Domestic
Affairs
of States
and the Protection
of Their
Independence
and Sovereignty
, adopted
by the General
Assembly
on 21 December 1965
(resolution
2131(XX))r
and the Declaration
on Principles
of International
Law
concerning
Friendly
Relations
and Co-operation
among States
in accordance
with the
Charter
of the United
Nations,
adopted
by the Assembly
on 24 October
1970
(resolution
2625(XXV)).
If the Permanent
Representative
of Lebanon wishes to disclaim
his country's
responsibility
for terrorist
activities
emanating
from Lebanese
territory,
as
indeed he has attempted
to do in his letters
under reply,
he is in fact calling
into question
his country's
very statehood
and independence.
It is not open to a
State
to invoke
in its favour
benefits
deriving
from certain
principles
and rules
of international
law unless
it is at the same time prepared
to abide by the
concomitant
duties.
I have the honour to request
the General
Assembly,
under item
Council.

that
34 of

this letter
be circulated
as a document
the preliminary
list,
and of the Security

(Signed)

Yehuda 2. BLUM
Ambassador
Permanent
Representative
of
to the United
Nations
----_

Israel

of