Mideast: 'now for the main issue'
Shaun Benton
16 August 2006South Africa has welcomed the United Nations Security Council resolution, adopted on 11 August, which called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities" between Israel and Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters in Cape Town on Tuesday Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said that, with the latest reports indicating that the truce was holding, now was the moment to seize the opportunity to work towards a comprehensive peace for the whole region.
"We believe this resolution opens up the possibility of a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive agreement for the whole region."
More immediately, the international community had to respond to the catastrophic human tragedy that five weeks of fighting had caused in the region, Pahad said, adding that while South Africa would do what it could to assist Lebanon, the onus for reconstruction fell on developed countries.
With an estimated 80% of Lebanon's infrastructure destroyed, the conditions needed for international humanitarian agencies "to do their work unhindered and in safety" had to be created immediately in order to ameliorate the conditions the Lebanese people found themselves in.
Pahad said a comprehensive solution to the Middle East crisis had to be sought now, based on "all relevant UN resolutions" as well as the Lebanese prime minister's seven-point plan, accepted by Arab foreign ministers and subsequently "noted" in the latest UN resolution.
"Clearly, the time has arrived for a long-term solution to the Lebanese-Israeli conflict," Pahad said, adding that the conflict in occupied Palestine - which to the South African government remained the nexus of all strife in the Middle East and further afield - urgently needed attention as well.
The Gaza Strip
The latest UN agency reports on this region were "of great concern," Pahad said, citing "a sharp decline" in the humanitarian situation confronting Gaza's 1.4-million
people, with a new Israeli offensive in the region entering its sixth week.
Since 28 June, it is estimated that over 184 Palestinians have been killed and 650 injured in the area, while 25 Israelis have been injured, including 11 hurt by home-made rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Development Programme estimates the cost of the damage in Gaza at well above US$15-million, not including damage to a power plant and the closure of the area's borders.
"We think we can get long-term peace and stability in the area if we deal with the major issue, the cause of all the violence in that region, and that is the Palestinian-Israel conflict," the deputy minister said.
"We remain convinced that the only solution for long-term peace is a two-state solution, that is, a viable Palestinian state living side-by-side with an Israeli state behind secure borders."
Palestinians of all parties, including Hamas, had accepted a document that had - for the first time - created a basis for all Palestinians to work for a two-state solution, Pahad said.
"[W]e must move to the final stages of discussions between Israel and Palestine," Pahad said. Only through this could the international community finally see peace in the region.
Pahad ruled out a South African role in mediation in the region, saying: "All South Africa can do is continue to share its experiences that there is life after a political solution."
Source: BuaNews
