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Viewing cable 06BERN1505, SWISS WELCOME UNSC RESOLUTION ON LEBANON

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06BERN1505 2006-08-15 10:37 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Bern
VZCZCXRO0573
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUEHSW #1505 2271037
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151037Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY BERN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2838
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0091
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2579
UNCLAS BERN 001505 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: UN IS PREL PTER MOPS UNSC
SUBJECT: SWISS WELCOME UNSC RESOLUTION ON LEBANON 
 
REF: SECSTATE 132517 
 
1.(SBU) Swiss officials generally agree with reftel points 
regarding UNSC Resolution 1701 and have publicly welcomed the 
resolution.  In response to reftel demarche, Swiss DFA Deputy 
UN Coordinator Jean-Francois Paroz told Poloff that the 
worthiness of the resolution would be seen in its 
implementation.  Poloff agreed, stressing that pressure 
needed to be maintained on Hizballah to disarm and cease 
terrorist attacks.  Poloff regretted the results of the Human 
Rights Council special session, which could not have been 
more unbalanced.  Paroz said that the Swiss were not 
satisfied with how the session turned out.  He insisted that 
the decision to abstain should not be viewed as a concession 
to the Arab League sponsors of the unbalanced resolution. 
His government, he said, still maintains that the Israeli 
response was disproportionate -- as Foreign Minister 
Calmy-Rey controversially put it in the early weeks of the 
war -- but that it hoped its repeated criticism of Hizballah 
showed that Bern maintained a balanced position. 
 
Unlikely to Send Peacekeepers 
----------------------------- 
 
2.(SBU) Regarding participation in the bolstered UNIFIL, 
Paroz said it was very unlikely Switzerland would take part, 
due both to a lack of manpower and Switzerland's 
constitutional difficulty with peace-enforcement (as opposed 
to peace-keeping) operations.  Paroz offered that is was a 
shame that Switzerland only had the ability to deploy a bit 
over 200 soldiers at a time (almost all of which are with 
KFOR in Kosovo), but that would remain the reality until 
ΒΆ2008.  DATT contacts have described as highly unlikely Swiss 
UNIFIL participation.  That said, the Swiss Joint Staff today 
sent an officer to Lebanon on a fact-finding mission. 
 
3.(SBU) In public statements, the government has been less 
unequivocal against deployment, insisting that such a 
decision would be made once the nature and mandate of the 
force was decided.  Media outlets note that the usual 
timeline for deployments precluded an early participation, 
since any mandate would first entail a Swiss interagency 
assessment, Federal Council (cabinet) approval, Parliamentary 
committee study, and full Parliamentary approval at one of 
its four annual sessions. 
 
Press Release 
------------- 
 
4.(U) A Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs press 
release on UNSCR 1701 can be found at the following link: 
www.eda.admin.ch/eda/e/home/singlem.html?id=6 566 . 
URBAN