Jordan, 1999

Permit

me first to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the

office of President of the General Assembly at its fifty-

fourth session. I am fully confident that your experience

and skills will bring the work of this session to a

successful conclusion. Please permit me also to express

my deep appreciation and gratitude to your predecessor,

Mr. Didier Opertti, for his magnificent and distinguished

stewardship, which made a success of the last session.

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his wise

leadership and outstanding work towards realizing and

emphasizing the goals and principles of the United

Nations and his tireless efforts to achieve peace, security

and stability in the world.

In the last few months of the second millennium,

and as we bid farewell to it and await the dawning of the

third millennium, this session of the General Assembly

takes place at an important historic and symbolic moment,

a moment of mixed emotions. We look back and see that

mankind has achieved great things despite the serious

suffering and pain that have marked the twentieth century.

We look forward with great hope to entering a new era in

which we shall build a more humanitarian world, in

which nations will be able to live in true partnership, with

a sense of belonging to this planet, in a more just and

harmonious way. We shall have an enhanced ability to

cope collectively with the major challenges that confront

us and to respond to changes that require a long-range

global vision. This will increase our ability to provide

answers and solutions to the difficult questions and issues

that face us.

This historic moment is of particular importance in

the life of Jordan, which was engulfed by grief a few

months ago, when it was deprived of its great leader, the

late King Hussein Ibn Talal — may God bless his soul.

He had succeeded in turning Jordan from a small country

with limited resources into an oasis of peace and stability

in a region beset by disturbances and wars. This country

has just begun a new era under the leadership of King

Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein. His Majesty has assumed the

responsibility for continuing, with renewed vigour, to lead

Jordan to progress and prosperity, as we look forward to

ushering in the new century. He is committed also to

Jordan’s continuing to make its important and essential

contribution to the building of peace in the Middle East

and to continuing to contribute generously at the

international level. He strongly believes, as Jordan’s

leaders have always believed, that our country belongs to

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this international family. Jordan is committed to the Charter

of the United Nations and to the principles of international

law.

Our late leader was a unique international leader, with

an unflinching belief in the role of the United Nations and

in the peaceful settlement of disputes. He expressed his

belief in these principles by working all his life to bring

about a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle

East based on international legitimacy. He did this out of

his strong belief in human dignity, in people’s right to live

free from all forms of injustice and despotism, and out of

an awareness that human life is too precious to be wasted

in confrontations and wars. Human beings have the right to

lead free and dignified lives, channelling all their resources

and energies towards achieving economic and social

development and participating in building a prosperous and

secure future for the generations to come.

The life of our great leader who is, alas, no more, is

the story of the building of modern Jordan. His exceptional

contributions in the international arena were also a rare

example of what can be achieved by a historic leader who

believes in high moral principles and supreme virtues.

Jordanians felt a deep sense of pride and appreciation when

they saw the whole world — leaders and common people

alike — standing side by side with them, sharing their grief

at the loss of the creator of their renaissance and their

modern State. They also felt a deep sense of trust and

confidence in the strength and durability of their

constitutional and institutional structures, which were built

by the late leader of their country and have ensured a stable

and successful beginning to the era of King Abdullah II Bin

Al Hussein, in a way that has won the appreciation and

respect of the world.

Jordanians are rallying today behind their King and

marching behind him on the road to realizing their hopes

and aspirations. Jordan is beginning, under the leadership of

King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, a new era with a firm

commitment to following the same course that has

distinguished and will continue to distinguish Jordanian

policy at both the domestic and international levels.

Over the past few months, Jordan has continued its

efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East.

This process had suffered over the past three years from

foot-dragging leading to effective deadlock, all of which

severely tested the confidence of the peoples of the region

in the peace process as a whole. The result of last May’s

parliamentary elections in Israel gave rise to new hopes of

reviving this process and putting it back on track. The

positive developments of the past few weeks show that

the region stands now before a second historic

opportunity to achieve peace on all tracks. We sincerely

hope that the leaders of the region will seize this

opportunity, live up to the expectations and aspirations of

their peoples and not hesitate to take the bold decisions

needed to bring the negotiations to fruition.

The question of Palestine has been and will continue

to be at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the

Middle East crisis. The establishment of peace in the

region therefore requires, first and foremost, that a just

solution should be reached to this question — a solution

with which the peoples of the region will be satisfied and

which they will if need be defend. Jordan has been calling

throughout the past year for the Wye River Memorandum,

which was arrived at with the unprecedented involvement

and assistance of the late King Hussein, to be

implemented. We have been consistently aware of the

impact that implementation of the Memorandum would

have on reactivating the peace process on all tracks, on

establishing confidence and a spirit of partnership

between the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships, and on re-

establishing confidence in the peace process amongst the

peoples of the region. The signing of the Sharm el-Sheikh

Memorandum has enhanced the prospects for

implementing the Wye River Memorandum in a way that

we hope will advance the final status negotiations

between the Palestinians and the Israelis so that a

settlement may be reached that would ensure that the

Palestinian people realize their right to self-determination,

including their right to establish an independent State on

their national territory, with Al-Quds al-Sharif — Holy

Jerusalem — as its capital.

As King Abdullah II has emphasized, Jordan will

continue to provide support for a successful conclusion of

the negotiations. We are directly interested in their

success because the issues on the agenda relate to our

national interest, particularly the issues of the refugees,

the borders and Jerusalem. Over the past 50 years, Jordan,

more than any other party, has shouldered the burden of

the refugee problem. This has put immense pressures on

Jordan’s resources and economy, particularly given that

every reduction in the services provided by the United

Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees

in the Near East (UNRWA) has placed additional burdens

on Jordan. Direct expenditures by the Government of

Jordan on services provided to the refugees in 1998

reached 4.75 times the amount spent by UNRWA on such

services. Total expenditures incurred by the Government

of Jordan equal the entire budget that UNRWA spends on

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refugees in all its areas of operations throughout the Middle

East. Jordan calls on the international community not to

allow any reductions in the role of UNRWA or in its

programmes until the refugee question has been resolved in

accordance with international legitimacy — which would

lead to the closing of this file in its entirety once and for

all. Jordan also calls on the donor countries to continue

their support for UNRWA to enable it to continue to

discharge its responsibilities.

With regard to the peace process on other tracks,

Jordan believes that a comprehensive solution is a

prerequisite for the establishment of peace in the region.

Without such a solution, no settlement can be assured of

durability. Jordan therefore strongly supports the efforts to

reactivate negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks.

It supports the demand by Syria and Lebanon that

negotiations should be resumed from the point at which

they stopped. The Jordanian leadership will spare no effort

to help bring about a breakthrough in negotiations on both

tracks.

Hopes have been rising over the past few weeks that

this can be achieved, particularly in view of Syria’s

reaffirmation of its full commitment to work for the

establishment of peace and of its concern for reviving the

peace process and bringing it to its desired goal: the

achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive

settlement. There have also been a number of positive

indicators from the Syrian Government and the Israeli

Government has said that it is convinced of the crucial

importance of reaching a peace agreement with Syria.

While looking forward to these positive developments with

great hopes, the peoples of the region earnestly desire that

this historic opportunity should not be missed and that the

efforts made will succeed in reaching a settlement whereby

Syria and Lebanon will have their legitimate rights restored

through Israel’s withdrawal from the Syrian Arab Golan

Heights and from southern Lebanon in implementation of

Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and

425 (1978).

The peoples of the Middle East region have suffered

unprecedented hardships because of the failure to reach a

comprehensive, just and lasting peaceful settlement. Vast

resources have been squandered on a useless arms race that

failed to provide security for any of the parties. Today the

peoples of the region look forward to real progress in the

peace process — progress that will help create a climate

conducive to an end to the arms race and to convincing the

various parties that peace is the only option capable of

providing security for all. It will also convince them to

make the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass

destruction. This requires a commitment from all parties

to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons and to ratify the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The issues of refugees, economic disparities and

water, as well as the elimination of weapons of mass

destruction, require effective regional cooperation and

concrete international support. Without resolving the

fundamental political aspects of the conflict, the region

will continue to suffer from the consequences of non-

cooperation in resolving these issues. Unless they are

resolved, they themselves will escalate and create new

hotbeds of conflict in the region.

On the eastern flank of our region, the Iraqi people

continue to suffer unprecedented hardships as a result of

the continued economic sanctions. The price of these

sanctions is paid by the Iraqi people in terms of their

health, nutrition, education and prospects for progress.

This poses serious future dangers for the region as a

whole.

Jordan therefore calls for ending this suffering by

lifting the sanctions. It also calls for the implementation

of the relevant Security Council resolutions, including

those concerning the Kuwaiti prisoners of war and

missing persons. It further calls upon the Security Council

to conduct a comprehensive review that would lead to

extricating Iraq from this situation and to affirm its

position of upholding the territorial integrity of Iraq as

one of the main pillars of regional security.

Jordan’s geographical location between two

extremely complex situations resulting from the

consequences of the Middle East crisis in general and the

lack of progress in the peace process during the past three

years in particular, as well as the continued economic

sanctions against Iraq for nine years, has subjected the

Jordanian economy to tremendous pressures. Countries

with capabilities and resources much greater than Jordan’s

would have difficulty coping with them. Although Jordan

is committed to implementing an integrated programme of

reform and restructuring of its economy and to taking

difficult and painful economic measures, the impact of

these two situations makes it virtually impossible for

Jordan to achieve acceptable levels of economic growth,

and it continues to suffer a huge external debt.

Viewing the real economic situation of Jordan and

the challenges facing it without linking it to the regional

32

environment that affects it does not give a true picture of

this situation. While Jordan is grateful for and appreciative

of the international community’s support for Jordan’s

efforts to cope with its enormous economic challenges, and

its assistance to Jordan in playing its central role in

maintaining stability in the region, Jordan would like the

international community to have a better understanding of

its economic problems. From this perspective, we view with

special appreciation the final communiqué issued at the

Summit meeting of the leaders of the industrialized nations

in Cologne last June, which reflected political will to help

Jordan and called for the consideration of reducing Jordan’s

foreign debt-burden. We hope that the friendly creditor

countries will take all possible measures to translate that

political will into action, enabling Jordan to reduce its debt

burden to a point that allows its economy to be revitalized

and to achieve higher growth rates.

The tragic situation the people of Kosovo were made

to experience severely tested the ability of the international

community, at the close of this century, to prevent the

crimes of ethnic cleansing and the violation of basic human

rights from being committed in a most despicable, racist

manner. This matter raises extremely serious and complex

questions about the role of the United Nations and the

limits that separate the right of States to assert their

sovereignty without committing mass crimes against

helpless unarmed civilians.

There are lessons to be drawn from this bitter human

experience. On the one hand, the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization’s ability to put an end to the criminal acts has

given clear evidence to all those who harbour thoughts of

rebelling against international law and of committing

similar acts that they should not presume that their

domestic military strength ensures absolute dominance,

including violation of human rights. Upholding the principle

of sovereignty should not overturn the obligation to observe

human rights and international humanitarian law.

On the other hand, as Members of this international

Organization, we must look into finding mechanisms that

ensure the enhancement of the United Nations and its

ability to be the framework that expresses the determination

of the international community to prevent such crimes, and

to be the umbrella for the coordination and organization of

collective international action to achieve that goal.

That situation has demonstrated the need for

formulating a new international order for the twenty-first

century, in which all peoples can enjoy respect for their

diversity and can participate in the formation of a world

conscience that ensures their coexistence. Continued

progress by peoples in adopting democracy as a way of

life makes it urgent to strengthen democracy within the

international system. Since the United Nations is the

backbone of the world system, it must evolve in such a

way that reflects the new realities in the international

arena.

Our international community has an urgent need to

pause for a real review of the international situation in all

its dimensions: political, security, economic,

environmental and human rights. We hope that the world

summit to be held next year will provide an opportunity

for such a review.

While we see that many issues and crises considered

by the United Nations remain to be resolved, this does not

necessarily mean failure on the part of the United Nations

as much as it demonstrates the importance of an existing

political will to resolve them.

Furthermore, the challenges of globalization pose

new kinds of global problems, which require harmonious

global solutions to the challenges facing developed

societies, such as terrorism, drug-trafficking and pollution

of the environment, and to the challenges that threaten the

developing countries, such as debt, unemployment and

economic recession. Such solutions must also strengthen

the ability of the developing countries to benefit from the

opportunities provided by globalization and to avoid its

negative effects by preventing a broadening of the

inequalities that lie between them and the developed

countries. The persistence of these inequalities will cause

the developing countries to remain on the periphery of

globalization.

Despite the magnitude of the challenges that

continue to confront us as we begin the proceedings of

this last session of the General Assembly in this century,

we should not overlook the many positive steps that have

been made recently. The adoption of the Statute of the

International Criminal Court was a particularly important

measure taken towards confronting and preventing the

perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity

from escaping punishment. I must also mention the

successful conclusion of the first Conference of States

Parties on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,

Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and On

Their Destruction.

Such accomplishments contribute to strengthening

human security and consolidating the commitment to

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human rights. They also provide examples of the potential

for activating international cooperation in many areas,

including the promotion of international commitment to

condemning and prohibiting terrorism.

In a different context, Jordan welcomes the agreement

reached by Libya and the United Nations on the Lockerbie

issue. It also commends the strenuous efforts made by the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, which contributed

to the reaching of an agreement. It calls for the complete

lifting of sanctions against Libya, after the removal of the

reasons for such sanctions and following the extradition of

the two suspects for trial.

On the matter of regional crises, we appeal to our

friends in Pakistan and India to resort to peaceful means to

resolve their conflict and to refrain from any escalation that

would seriously endanger the peace of the Indian

subcontinent and the whole world.

As for the dispute between the United Arab Emirates

and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan calls for, as it

always has, the resolution of this dispute through dialogue

based upon mutual respect. It also hopes that Iran will heed

the United Arab Emirates’ request to enter into dialogue

with a specific timetable and agenda, in order to reach a

solution that conforms to international legitimacy, which

denies the admissibility of occupation of territory by force.

Jordan attaches special importance to maintaining a

dialogue between religions and civilizations, in order to

bring closer together the views of the various beliefs,

religions and civilizations. This will also create a common

base for developing humanitarian thought, which calls for

peace and cooperation rather than confrontation. These

efforts have resulted in creating a greater awareness at the

domestic and international levels of the goals of this

dialogue. We hope that the United Nations will promote,

through its specialized agencies, programmes of dialogue in

the various fields of human activity and at all national,

regional and international levels.

The international community is called upon to use

dialogue to combat dangerous discriminatory practices,

which we see today, such as Islamophobia. Islam is being

subjected to a severe and unjustified attack, which attempts,

intentionally or unintentionally, to establish a linkage

between Islam and those extremist and terrorist movements

that hurt Islam and Muslims by using religion as a tool.

Discrimination and arbitrary practices against Muslim

populations in various countries are only a result of

extremist thinking, far removed from the principles of

civilized behaviour and humanity. The international

community must consider how to confront this

phenomenon of Islamophobia in order to prevent its

proliferation.

Natural disasters, which have afflicted many

countries recently, remind us of a basic fact, which is that

we all face phenomena and challenges that do not

discriminate between us on the basis of race, religion,

wealth or geographical location. While expressing

sympathy to our friends in Turkey and Greece, which

have been hit by earthquakes recently, and our admiration

for the positive sentiments they have expressed to each

other in their suffering, we realize that confronting natural

dangers and disasters, like confronting other challenges,

requires a sincere political will to take collective action in

order to preserve the planet, to which we all belong

equally.