United Arab Emirates, 1995

On behalf of the delegation of the United

Arab Emirates, it gives me great pleasure to extend my

sincere congratulations to the President on his election to

the presidency of the fiftieth session of the General

Assembly. This demonstrates the esteem the international

community holds for the President and his friendly country.

We wish him every success and good fortune. We also

wish to express our deep appreciation to his predecessor,

His Excellency Amara Essy, the Foreign Minister of

Côte d’Ivoire, who presided over the last session with

wisdom and competence.

I should like to seize this opportunity to express anew

our confidence in the strenuous efforts made by Mr.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Secretary-General, to enhance

the role of our Organization in today’s world.

This session coincides with the celebration of the

fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations.

This is an important political event in the history of this

Organization, particularly in light of the rapid changes that

have taken place in international relations. These changes

have contributed, in varying degrees, to the achievement of

some progress with regard to a number of issues that relate

to disarmament, economic and social development, and to

the containment of some regional conflicts.

In spite of this, our international community remains

far from the desired world peace. New challenges have

emerged and have entailed suffering, extermination,

expulsion and famine to thousands of people. These, in

turn, have affected international life as they have impacted

on the economic, political and social situation in the world.

Such a situation, of course, does not measure up to

the expectations the new regional and international

changes gave rise to when they followed on the heels of

each other. The hope of witnessing the emergence of a

new world order that would favour development, peace,

growth and justice has not yet taken a concrete shape that

would affect the future of mankind. The emergence of

such an order requires a wider framework of regional and

international cooperation which would work in favour of

finding peaceful solutions to world problems. Such

solutions should aim at elaborating a comprehensive

approach designed to promote and enhance human,

economic and social development, encourage harmony,

tolerance and communal solidarity, ensure respect for the

customs, traditions and religious beliefs of each

community and country, in addition to combating

terrorism and its manifestations, combating drug

trafficking, and strengthening the role of the United

Nations in the areas of peace-keeping, conflict prevention

and the mitigation of the human suffering of many

peoples of the world, especially in the developing world.

We believe that the establishment of such a world order

requires a stronger political will and a much wider

framework of regional and international cooperation in

order for it to be compatible with the thrust of the new

international changes.

The stability and security of States and the

settlement of disputes have become high priorities of

today’s world. To achieve stability and security, new

practices are needed. Such practices should be based on

the provisions of international law and the principles of

the Charter, especially the principles of sovereignty,

regional peace, non-interference in internal affairs of

States, the settlement of disputes and conflicts by peaceful

means and the promotion of relations of good-

neighbourliness.

On this basis, the United Arab Emirates reaffirms its

position which calls for direct bilateral and unconditional

negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an

end to its military occupation, which has lasted since

1971, of the three Arab islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser

Tunb and Abu Moussa, as those islands form an

indivisible part of the territorial sovereignty of the United

Arab Emirates. If this is feasible, my country renews its

initiative, announced at the last session, which calls for

referring the dispute to the International Court of Justice,

in view of the fact that the Court is the international body

entrusted with the settlement of disputes and that many

countries, including Iran, have had recourse to it in

seeking to settle similar disputes.

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Our peace initiatives have received support from

sisterly countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the

League of Arab States and other friendly, peace-loving

nations, since what is at stake here is one of our legal

sovereign rights. In spite of this peaceful approach, the

Islamic Republic of Iran not only rejects those initiatives

but also imposes a policy of fait accompli by military force.

It has adopted a set of illegal measures with the aim of

entrenching its occupation. Those measures conflict, not

only with the principles of peaceful coexistence and good-

neighbourliness, but also with the provisions of the Charter

of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Charter

of the United Nations and the principles of international

law.

Over the past decade, the Arabian Gulf region

witnessed a number of conflicts and wars that resulted in

devastation and loss in terms of human, material and

environmental resources. It would have been wiser to

benefit from such resources by striving for economic and

social integration and sustainable development in the

interests of the region’s peoples who enjoy common bands

of history and religion and have common interests.

The question of building confidence between the

countries of the region has become one of the most

significant and focal issues for the Governments of the

countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Over the past

few years, those Governments have spared no effort in

trying to ease the suffering caused to their peoples by past

events whose consequences have demonstrated that the use

or threat of force by certain parties will never lead to the

achievements of their aim of changing the immutable

historical and geographical realities of the region. On the

contrary, the use or threat of force creates new crises and

disputes that threaten international and regional peace and

security. It is our belief that the best way of avoiding such

a situation is to opt for dialogue, bilateral and multilateral

negotiations, confidence-building measures and to comply

with international legality.

In this context, we welcome all peaceful efforts and

initiatives aimed at the demarcation of boundaries between

the sisterly countries of the region. While we wish to put

on record our firm position regarding the need to safeguard

the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, the need to

ease the suffering of the Iraqi people and not to interfere in

its internal affairs, we call upon the Iraqi Government to

meet all its international obligations set out in relevant

Security Council resolutions, especially those relating to the

release of Kuwaiti prisoners and detainees and the nationals

of other countries, as well as the return of Kuwaiti

property still in its possession.

The United Arab Emirates welcomes the progress

made in the negotiations between the Palestinians and

Israelis, which led to the Declaration of Principles and

complementary agreements, the latest being the agreement

on the second phase of expanded self-rule in the West

Bank. Implementation by the Israeli Government of those

agreements would be an important and essential step

towards enabling the Palestinian people to exercise its

right to self-determination and to the creation of its

independent State on its national soil, like any other

people in the world.

In the same context, we are of the view that the

achievement of a just, comprehensive and permanent

peace in the Middle East is contingent on making tangible

progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks. This will

require a greater international effort, especially on the part

of the two sponsors of the peace process, to encourage

the Israeli Government to comply with its undertakings

and obligations in the context of the principle of “land for

peace” and of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967),

338 (1973) and 425 (1978), which stipulate complete and

unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied

Arab and Palestinian territories, including the holy city of

Al-Quds, the Syrian Golan and southern Lebanon.

The maintenance of international peace and security

is a collective international responsibility that requires the

existence of political will, a new approach and the

adoption of transparency, instead of the application of

double standards, if the declared intentions in the field of

disarmament and the elimination of weapons of mass

destruction are to be translated into concrete realities. In

this field, it behoves the international community to take

firmer steps to prevent the proliferation of nuclear

weapons and the possibility of their use in any region of

the world.

Proceeding from the importance we attach to the

achievement of common security, we announce that on 25

September 1995, the Government of the United Arab

Emirates completed the legal procedures for acceding to

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

This is in conformity with our position which calls for the

creation of zones that are free from all weapons of mass

destruction, especially in the Middle East. This is a goal

that cannot be achieved so long as Israel continues to

refuse to submit to the system of international monitoring

and safeguards or to accede to the Treaty on the

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Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a posture that

weakens the credibility of the Treaty.

In spite of regional and international efforts to rescue

Somalia from its plight, conflicts between the disputing

factions continue. We therefore call on those factions to end

the bloodshed, to renounce conflict and to work towards a

settlement that would restore Somalia’s national unity,

security and stability.

After more than three years of crimes of murder,

destruction and “ethnic cleansing” that have continued to be

committed by the Serbian forces against the people of the

Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a new turning-point

has emerged in the form of the recent peace negotiations

that have led to a preliminary agreement on the

fundamental principles for a comprehensive settlement

based on the decisions of international legality.

The United Arab Emirates, which has continued to call

upon the parties, since the outbreak of the conflict,

especially on the Serbian side, to resort to peaceful dialogue

instead of military force, today renews its support for all

the efforts undertaken by the international community,

especially the Contact Groups of the Organization of the

Islamic Conference, the European Union and the United

States of America, to solve this crisis peacefully and to

guarantee respect for the territorial sovereignty of Bosnia

and Herzegovina. At the same time, we stress the need, in

accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United

Nations, to lift the arms embargo imposed on Bosnia and

Herzegovina, in order to prevent the repetition of the acts

of aggression, massacre and “ethnic cleansing” that the

Serbian forces have perpetrated against Bosnian civilians,

particularly Muslims.

In spite of the positive situations which the changes in

economic and social situations at the national, regional and

international levels gave rise to over the past few years, the

developing countries have continued to suffer from hunger,

poverty and an aggravated debt burden, side by side with

the decline in the prices of primary commodities, and the

inequitable measures that the developed countries continue

to apply as part of their economic and trade policies and

that contribute to widening further the economic and social

gap between them on the one hand and the developing

countries on the other. In view of this situation,

responsibility for the resumption of dialogue between the

countries of the North and the South rests with the

international community, in order for it to serve equally the

interests of the developed and the developing countries

alike.

In the midst of the celebrations on the occasion of

the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, the United

Arab Emirates supports the international call for

evaluation, reform and development in the structures of

the United Nations, especially with regard to increasing

the membership of the Security Council and ensuring the

transparency and equitable geographical representation

needed if the Organization is to face up to the great

challenges, whether at the level of consolidating

international peace and security or at the level of

promoting economic and social development.

We should like also to emphasize the need for

cooperation between the United Nations and regional

organizations with a view to creating a wider framework

of coordination and consultation, and with the aim of

reaching joint peaceful solutions to current conflicts based

on international law, with a view to strengthening security

and stability and promoting development.

In conclusion, we hope that these aspirations will

help shape and strengthen the commitment of all States to

the principles of the Charter and the provisions of

international law and will form a framework for the

renewed unification of the power and determination of

this Organization, which over the last fifty years has

remained a symbol of hope in the ability of humanity to

free itself from the scourges of war, hunger and disease

and to live in lasting peace and security.