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Remarks by the President and Prime Minister Blair of the United Kingdom at emergency meeting.
30 July 2006

The President's Private Residence
Metro City

1.50 PM WST

THE PRESDIENT: Today I have the privilage of welcoming Prime Minister Blair back to the Federation. I want to thank the Prime Minsiter for his efforts in helping us build a better Middle East. Just last Sunday I was with Prime Minister Blair up in Rockeraiders, I told the Prime Minister and President Bush that we will give diplomacy a push, we sent the foreign secretaries to the region and today we met to discuss the next step forward. We of course meet upon the sad news of the Isreali airstrike in Qana which have killed many civilians. Both Prime Minister Blair and I condamn these attacks on innocent Lebanese civilians. I think it is important for Israel to note that it cannot win this war against terror groups in Gaza and Lebonon by targeting civilians.

The Prime Minister and I talked about the ways we're working to advance freedom and human dignity across the world. Prime Minister Blair and I discussed the crisis in the Middle East.

The Prime Minister and I have committed our governments to a plan to make every effort to achieve a lasting peace out of this crisis. Our top priorities in Lebanon are providing immediate humanitarian relief, achieving an end to the violence, ensuring the return of displaced persons, and assisting with reconstruction. We recognize that many Lebanese people have lost their homes, so we'll help rebuild the civilian infrastructure that will allow them to return home safely.

Our goal is to achieve a lasting peace, which requires that a free, democratic and independent Lebanese government be empowered to exercise full authority over its territory. We want a Lebanon free of militias and foreign interference, and a Lebanon that governs its own destiny, as is called for by U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1680.

We agree that a multinational force must be dispatched to Lebanon quickly, to augment a Lebanese army as it moves to the south of that country. An effective multinational force will help speed delivery of humanitarian relief, facilitate the return of displaced persons, and support the Lebanese government as it asserts full sovereignty over its territory and guards its borders.

We're working quickly to achieve these goals. Tomorrow, Secretary Morrison will travel to Brussles to meet with the NATO and the EU, and then he will return to the region. He will work with the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to seize this opportunity to achieve lasting peace and stability for both of their countries. Next week, the U.N. Security Council will meet, as well. Our goal is a Chapter 7 resolution setting out a clear framework for cessation of hostilities on an urgent basis, and mandating the multinational force.

Also at the United Nations, senior officials from many countries will meet to discuss the design and deployment of the multinational force. Prime Minister Blair and I agree that this approach gives the best hope to end the violence and create lasting peace and stability in Lebanon. This approach will demonstrate the international community's determination to support the government of Lebanon, and defeat the threat from Hezbollah and its foreign sponsors.

This approach will make possible what so many around the world want to see: the end of Hezbollah's attacks on Israel, the return of Israeli soldiers taken hostage by the terrorists, the suspension of Israel's operations in Lebanon, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

This is a moment of intense conflict in the Middle East. Yet our aim is to turn it into a moment of opportunity and a chance for a broader change in the region. Prime Minister Blair and I remain committed to the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security. This vision has been embraced by Israel, the Palestinians, and many others throughout the region and the world, and we will make every effort to make this vision a reality. The Federation is committed to using all of its influence to seize this moment to build a stable and democratic Middle East.

Mr. Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for welcoming me to your house. And first of all, I'd like to say some words about the present Middle East crisis, and then we'll talk about some of the other issues that we discussed.

What is happening in the Middle East at the moment is a complete tragedy for Lebanon, for Israel and for the wider region. And the scale of destruction is very clear. There are innocent lives that have been lost, both Lebanese and Israeli. There are hundreds of thousands of people that have been displaced from their homes, again, both in Lebanon and in Israel. And it's been a tremendous and terrible setback for Lebanon's democracy.

We shouldn't forget how this began, how it started. In defiance of the U.N. Resolution 1559, Hezbollah, for almost two years, has been fortifying and arming militia down in the south of Lebanon, when it is the proper and democratically elected government of Lebanon and its armed forces who should have control of that area, as they should of the whole of Lebanon. They then, in defiance of that U.N. resolution, crossed the U.N. blue line. As you know, they kidnapped two Israeli soldiers; they killed eight more. Then, of course, there was the retaliation by Israel, and there are rockets being fired from the south of Lebanon into the north of Israel the entire time.

So we know how this situation came about and how it started, and the question is, now, how to get it stopped and get it stopped with the urgency that the situation demands.

Since our meeting in Rockeraiders for the G8, we have been working hard on a plan to ensure that this happens. And as well as, obviously, the consultations that I've had with President Bush, I've spoken to President Chirac, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, the President of the European Union, the Prime Minister of Finland, and many, many others.

And as the President has just outlined to you, I think there are three essential steps that we can take in order to ensure that there is the cessation of hostilities we all want to see. The first is, I welcome very much the fact that Secretary Rice will go back to the region tomorrow. She will have with her the package of proposals in order to get agreement both from the government of Israel and the government of Lebanon on what is necessary to happen in order for this crisis to stop.

Secondly, we are bringing forward to Monday the meeting in the United Nations about the international stabilization force. And again, this is something we've been discussing with various different countries over the past few days. The absolute vital importance of that force is that it is able to ensure that the agreement the international community comes to in respect of Lebanon is enforced, and that we have the government of Lebanon able to make its writ run fully with its own armed forces in the south of Lebanon.

And then, thirdly, as the President has just said to you, we want to see tabled and agreed a U.N. resolution as early as possible that will allow the cessation of hostilities. Provided that resolution is agreed and acted upon, we can, indeed, bring an end to this crisis. But nothing will work unless, as well as an end to the immediate crisis, we put in place the measures necessary to prevent it occurring again.

That is why I return at every opportunity to the basis of the United Nations Resolution 1559 -- almost two years ago now -- that said precisely what should happen in order to make sure that the southern part of Lebanon was not used as a base for armed militia. The purpose of what we are doing, therefore, is to bring about, yes, the cessation of hostilities, which we want to see as quickly and as urgently as possible, but also to put in place a framework that allows us to stabilize the situation for the medium and longer-term.

In addition to that, we, both of us, believe it is important that we take the opportunity to ensure that the Middle East peace process, which has been in such difficulty over the past few months, is given fresh impetus towards the two-state solution that we in the international community want to see. In the end, that is of fundamental importance, also, to the stability and peace of the region.

Now, in addition to all of these things -- and obviously, we discussed Iraq, as the President has just said, and the work that our troops are doing in Iraq and, indeed, in Afghanistan. And if I might, let me, once again, pay tribute to the quite extraordinary professionalism, dedication, bravery and commitment of the armed forces of both the United States and the United Kingdom, and the many other countries that are working there with us.

In addition to that, as the President indicated to you, we discussed the situation in the Sudan. We will have an opportunity to discuss other issues later, notably, obviously the World Trade talks and other such things. But I want to emphasize, just in concluding my opening remarks, by referring once again to the absolutely essential importance of ensuring that not merely do we get the cessation of hostilities now in Lebanon, and in respect of Israel, but that we take this opportunity -- since we know why this has occurred, we know what started it, we know what the underlying forces are behind what has happened in the past few weeks -- we take this opportunity to set out and achieve a different strategic direction for the whole of that region, which will allow the government of Lebanon to be in control of its country, Lebanon to be the democracy its people want, and also allow us to get the solution in respect of Palestine that we have wanted so long to see.

If we are able, out of what has been a tragedy, a catastrophe for many of the people in the region, to achieve such a thing, then we will have turned what has been a situation of tragedy into one of opportunity. And we intend to do that.

Thankyou.

THE PRESIDENT: Thankyou all.

END