United Arab Emirates, 2007

It gives me great pleasure to

express, on behalf of the delegation of the United Arab

Emirates, our sincere congratulations to you, Sir, and

to your friendly country on your election as President

of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session.

We look forward to working closely with you as you

seek to successfully discharge your mission.

I would also like to express our appreciation to

your predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for

her remarkable achievements during her presidency at

the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, in

particular her efforts to stimulate more active debate

among cultures.

I also take this opportunity to express our

warmest greetings to His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

the Secretary-General, and to note our appreciation of

the initiatives he has taken to promote the role of the

United Nations since assuming his post.

Our world still suffers from a wide range of

regional and international issues, conflicts and threats,

most visible among which are the worldwide spread of

poverty and epidemics, the degradation of the

environment, terrorism, organized crime, the spread of

extremism and violations of human rights, and attempts

to obtain nuclear weapons. This should prompt us to

make sincere and determined efforts to implement the

recommendations, decisions and plans of action

approved by the world’s leaders and by the United

Nations.

Given its interest in and commitment to the

principle of good-neighbourly relations, as well as its

respect for the national sovereignty of other States, the

United Arab Emirates would like to draw attention to

the fact that, thus far, no progress whatsoever has been

made on the issue of the Iranian occupation since 1971

of three islands belonging to the United Arab Emirates:

the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa. This

is despite the consistent efforts expended and the

positive peaceful initiatives taken by my country,

which wants this issue settled by peaceful means,

either through bilateral and unconditioned negotiations

or by referral of the issue to the International Court of

Justice for legal arbitration.

Severe conflict has sorely wounded our region,

and quick and effective treatment is required. As for

Iraq, we express our firm belief that all should abstain

from interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and should

show respect for the national sovereignty and territorial

integrity of Iraq. This requires that all parties should

cooperate to bring to an end the cycle of violence and

the inflaming of passions, and it calls for partition and

division. Let us give our support to an Iraqi

Government that truly works to achieve national

reconciliation. The United Arab Emirates renews its

encouragement for the efforts made to promote

reconstruction in Iraq.

Regarding the Middle East crisis, we call on the

United Nations, and the Security Council in particular,

to play a more active role, together with the Middle

East Quartet, to give new momentum to the Middle

East peace process. We stress that no solution to the

Arab-Israeli conflict is possible without Israel’s

acceptance of the Arab Peace Initiative, which is based

on the relevant United Nations resolutions and offers a

balanced and comprehensive solution to this long-

standing conflict.

In this context, we are following with interest the

efforts to convene the international peace conference

for the Middle East later this year with the

participation of all concerned parties. We look forward

to a balanced and fair settlement of the issue on the

basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, the United Nations

Security Council resolutions, and the rules of

international legitimacy. We also renew our support for

Syria’s right to regain its full sovereignty over the

occupied Golan Heights.

We note with satisfaction the United Nations role

in restoring security and stability in Lebanon, thanks to

the pressure put on Israel to fulfil its legal obligations

under Security Council resolution 1701 (2006),

including respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty,

withdrawal from the Shaba’a farmlands and the village

of al-Ghajar and the handing over of detailed maps and

coordinates of the landmines that Israel planted in

southern Lebanon.

We reaffirm our support for the reconstruction

efforts and for the stability and territorial integrity of

Lebanon as well as for the maintenance of its

constitutional institutions. In this respect, the United

Arab Emirates has undertaken a number of

reconstruction projects in Lebanon and has provided

humanitarian assistance. The United Arab Emirates

collaborates closely with the Lebanese Government

and the United Nations to remove mines and

unexploded ordnance, this work having originally

commenced as part of an initiative taken by the United

Arab Emirates in 2001, when my Government provided

initial funding of $50 million.

We hope that talks between Iran and the

International Atomic Energy Agency will eventually

lead to a permanent, peaceful solution that will spare

the region further tensions and conflicts and will help

to reassure countries in the region that they will not be

faced with any threats to their security. We stress again

that Israel should not be excluded from the terms of the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The United Arab Emirates continues to cooperate

fully with all efforts to combat all forms of terrorism,

including associated money-laundering. We also

emphasize the importance of promoting dialogue

among cultures and civilizations and of enhancing

tolerance among religions.

The United Arab Emirates contributes generously

to the financing of development projects in some

95 States. Such assistance has exceeded $70 billion and

is intended to promote a culture of peace and stability

in those countries and throughout the world. Consistent

with that approach, the United Arab Emirates has

created a number of institutions, including the Abu

Dhabi Fund for Development, the Zayed Charitable

and Humanitarian Foundation, the Khalifa bin Zayed

Foundation for Charitable Work and the Mohammed

bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charity, which recently

launched the “Dubai Cares” charity campaign, which

seeks to guarantee education for 1 million children

around the world, especially in Asia and Africa.

Since its creation in 1971, the United Arab

Emirates has achieved economic, social and cultural

progress that has helped to establish stability and well-

being for citizens of the Emirates and job opportunities

for the millions who work in our country.

We have also launched an interim political reform

plan, in whose first phase half of the members of the

Federal National Council were elected as an important

step towards political participation. In this context, I

should also like to make reference to the significant

national gains that have been made by women in the

United Arab Emirates. Two women sit in the Council

of Ministers, and women hold approximately a quarter

of the seats in the Federal National Council. They are

also represented in the judiciary and in other senior

leadership and decision-making positions.

In the context of its national, regional and

international efforts and cooperation, the United Arab

Emirates has enacted laws to counter terrorist crimes

and money-laundering and has frozen many suspect

bank and corporate accounts. It has also enacted laws

on issues such as human trafficking and international

judicial cooperation on criminal matters, and has

adopted import and export control procedures for a

range of commodities.

In its desire for educational and cultural contact

with the rest of the world, the United Arab Emirates

has launched a number of initiatives, including the

$2-million Sheikh Zayed Book Award, designed to

motivate creative writers and intellectuals to make

contributions in all spheres of the humanities.

As part of our efforts to bring the experience of

the world’s most prestigious universities to the United

Arab Emirates, we have recently launched the Paris-

Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and have inaugurated

the Emirates Foundation to raise our educational,

technological, intellectual and research resources to the

highest global levels. Further underlining our belief in

the importance of cultural communication among the

world’s peoples for the preservation of the historical

heritage of human civilization, we have agreed to build

two world-class satellite museums in the United Arab

Emirates: the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Guggenheim

Abu Dhabi.

The United Arab Emirates prides itself on being

home for people of all religions, ethnicities, cultures

and countries from all continents. Indeed, the number

of countries represented in the Emirates exceeds the

total membership of the United Nations. All these

people live in the Emirates in harmony, forming a

model for what the modern world should be like.

In compliance with its obligations under

international human rights and labour treaties, the

United Arab Emirates has enacted legislation to

guarantee the full rights of its expatriate workforce in

accordance with relevant national and international

laws and treaties. I affirm here that the relevant

authorities in the United Arab Emirates are determined

that these laws and treaties should be fully

implemented so as to protect workers and provide them

with the best working and living conditions.

Finally, we hope that our deliberations on the

urgent international issues on the agenda of the current

sixty-second session of the General Assembly will

continue in a spirit of solidarity and will lead to

positive steps towards the eventual fulfilment of our

aspiration to peace, development and prosperity for our

world and its peoples.