United Arab Emirates, 2008

On behalf of the United Arab

Emirates, I have the pleasure to express to you,

Mr. President, and to your friendly country our sincere

congratulations on your election as President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-third session. I would

also like to thank your predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim,

for successfully guiding the proceedings of the

previous session. I should also take this opportunity to

express my gratitude to Secretary-General Ban Ki-

moon for his unceasing efforts to strengthen the

Organization and re-energize its role in international

affairs.

The United Arab Emirates has made major

progress in a number of domestic areas. For example,

we have increased the representation of women in our

executive and legislative bodies, including by

expanding their effective participation in the labour

market. We are developing national laws on the

protection of and respect for human rights and are

making significant efforts to improve the welfare of

those with special needs. Attempts are also under way

to enact legislation to regulate foreign workers in order

to ensure their full rights. In keeping with our

commitments under relevant bilateral and international

agreements, we are also increasing our efforts to

combat human trafficking and to provide protection

and all the necessary support for its victims.

With regard to the environment, the United Arab

Emirates attaches great importance to environmental

issues. In cooperation with the Worldwide Fund for

Nature, we have launched a number of ambitious

strategic programmes, such as the development of

Masdar City, which will be the world’s first carbon-

and waste-free city, completely dependent on

renewable and clean technologies such as solar energy,

which will be used to generate power and desalinate of

water.

Foreign aid has an important place on our

national agenda. We have continued to provide various

types of financial and humanitarian assistance to many

countries to help them to fund their development

programmes and infrastructure projects. Directly and

through our membership in the United Nations Office

for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Donor

Support Group and our contributions to the specialized

agencies and programmes of the United Nations, we

are also providing assistance to those who have

suffered from wars and natural disasters.

In order to alleviate the suffering of millions of

people as a result of rising food prices, my country has

dispatched 2 million tons of wheat to Yemen, Syria and

Egypt. Also as part of our foreign aid, we have

provided additional financial assistance to help several

developing countries adjust to the phenomenal increase

in their energy costs.

In that regard, we would like to express our

concern about the repercussions of the financial crisis

in international markets. We reiterate that this matter

urgently calls for a joint international mechanism that

will contribute to the establishment of strong and

transparent rules to regulate international financial

markets.

The way in which development has taken place in

the United Arab Emirates provides a vivid example of

tolerance and coexistence. We hope to enrich and

strengthen those values through our educational and

cultural programmes, for we strongly believe that

interaction between different nations and peoples is

both of fundamental importance and an essential

prerequisite for the achievement of stability, welfare

and prosperity in our region.

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The United Arab Emirates therefore attaches

great importance to radically restructuring and

modernizing our educational system to align it with

technological and educational innovations so that it

meets the needs and requirements of our development

programmes. We also believe that providing education

for all is one of the major and significant issues facing

us. It is essential that we devote all our resources to it,

for in education lies the hope that we can break the evil

cycle of poverty and ignorance, which in turn lead to

the creation of a fertile environment in which terrorism

and extremism can take root and grow.

Iran’s ongoing occupation since 1971 of the

United Arab Emirates’` three islands of Abu Musa and

Greater and Lesser Tunb is an issue of central

importance to us. From this rostrum, I would like to

reiterate our firm position demanding the full

restoration of our full sovereignty over the three

occupied islands and their territorial waters, airspace,

continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. The

islands are part and parcel of our national sovereignty.

We reiterate that all actions and measures, whether

military or administrative, undertaken by Iran since its

occupation of the three islands are null and void. Iran’s

actions have no legal effect. We therefore renew our

call to the international community to urge Iran to

respond positively to the sincere appeals of the United

Arab Emirates, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the

League of Arab States by agreeing to resolve the issue

through committed and serious direct negotiations or

by referring the dispute to the International Court of

Justice.

We strongly believe in making the Middle East,

including the Arabian Gulf, a zone free from weapons

of mass destruction. That would require compelling

Israel to comply with United Nations resolutions by

bringing its nuclear facilities into compliance with the

safeguards regime of the International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) and unconditionally signing the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as other

countries of the region have done. We also urge the

Islamic Republic of Iran to continue its cooperation

with the IAEA and the international community in

order to dispel fears and suspicions related to the

nature and objectives of its nuclear programme. We

also call on all other stakeholders to commit

themselves to continuing to address that issue through

political and diplomatic means in order to avoid

escalation and achieve a peaceful solution that can

ensure stability and security for the region and its

peoples.

Based on our firm belief in the right of countries

to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in

accordance with the safeguards regime of the IAEA,

the United Arab Emirates urges developed nations to

support the legitimate needs of developing countries

for access to nuclear energy by providing them with

the best possible access to the equipment, nuclear

materials and technological and scientific know-how

related to peaceful purposes. The United Arab Emirates

believes that its peaceful nuclear programme provides

a practical and responsible example of transparency in

meeting our energy needs, while at the same time we

pledge not to engage in enrichment or reprocessing,

with the support of the organizations and institutions of

some friendly countries and under the supervision of

the IAEA.

On another front, the United Arab Emirates has

continuously spared no effort to support and promote

every regional and international effort to help the

Government of Iraq and its people. It is our hope that

the latest initiatives of the United Arab Emirates,

including the write-off of more than $7 billion in debt

and interest due and the re-opening of our embassy in

Baghdad, will contribute to promoting economic

development and strengthening the political process.

That will require the renunciation of all communal and

sectarian violence and full commitment to the unity,

sovereignty and stability of Iraq, the preservation of its

Arab identity and the rejection of any attempts to

divide or fragment the country.

With regard to the Middle East, the United Arab

Emirates has strongly supported the Palestinian-Israeli

peace process, including final status negotiations and

the outcome of the Annapolis Conference. In that

context, we would like to express our concerns about

the lack of earnest in Israel’s attitude towards those

negotiations. We call on the international community,

and in particular the Security Council and the members

of the Quartet, to press Israel to lift the siege it has

imposed on the Palestinian people and to implement

international resolutions related to freezing all of its

illegal settlement activity, dismantling unlawful

settlements and ending its occupation of all Palestinian

and Arab territories occupied since 1967, including the

holy city of Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and some

Lebanese territories. Ending the occupation would

bring Israel into compliance with relevant international

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resolutions, the road map and the Arab peace initiative.

It would also ensure the establishment of an

independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its

capital, as well as Israel’s security.

My country has cooperated effectively and

consistently with every effort to combat terrorism in all

its forms and manifestations, including money-

laundering. We shall continue to do so in order to rid

the world of that scourge and its causes. At the same

time, we re-emphasize our support for all activities to

promote dialogue among civilizations and enhance the

spirit of tolerance among all faiths.

In closing, I would like to stress the need for full

compliance with the Charter of the United Nations and

international law in meeting the daunting challenges

ahead. I hope that this session will produce

international consensus on how to address those

challenges for the benefit of humankind.