Kuwait, 2004

I am

pleased to convey my congratulations to the President

elected to the fifty-ninth session of the General

Assembly. I likewise take this opportunity to express

our appreciation to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, for the great efforts he has been exerting to

restructure and reform the United Nations, to improve

its methods of work and revitalize its role in all fields

in order to face the demands and challenges of the

twenty-first century.

Reform and restructuring of the United Nations

system have become imperatives, since this world

Organization remains the ideal mechanism to address

the urgent problems of the world, by way of combating

poverty and hunger, ensuring the non-proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction, achieving disarmament

and resolving armed conflicts, combating diseases that

take the lives of millions, such as AIDS and malaria.

The United Nations has organized numerous

international conferences and summits in the last 10

years, such as the Millennium Summit, the World

Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg

and the International Conference on Financing for

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Development in Monterrey to address those

multilateral problems. The international community

may not have been able to achieve enough progress in

addressing some of these issues, but this should not

prevent us from redoubling our efforts to implement

the international treaties, resolutions and programmes

of action of such United Nations conferences. This

must be done in order to ensure respect for the

purposes and principles of the Charter, international

law, the central role of the United Nations and its

primacy in preserving international peace and security

and in the strengthening of international cooperation in

the economic, social and cultural spheres.

Terrorism is one of the major challenges the

United Nations faces in this millennium. Its negative

effects are extremely serious and touch upon all States

without exception, although to varying degrees.

Terrorist attacks such as those of 11 September 2001,

the attacks against the brotherly kingdom of Saudi

Arabia and the events in Jakarta and Beslan emphasize

the fact that this phenomenon affects us all. Its targets are

all peoples of the world, not any one State in particular.

We must, therefore, cooperate fully and

collectively in addressing the roots of terrorism and not

simply deal with its tragic effects. Kuwait has endorsed

all of the United Nations resolutions to combat

terrorism. Terrorism, however, is not related to any one

ethnic group, culture or religion. It is an international

phenomenon that must be addressed by the United

Nations, as the ideal framework for diagnosing its

causes and arriving at the necessary solutions needed

to contain it.

A year and a half after the fall of Saddam

Husseinís dictatorship, the situation in Iraq continues

to be a delicate one of uncertainty and insecurity, due

to terrorist acts carried out by armed groups and the

remnants of the old regime. This is hampering the

efforts of the interim Iraqi Government, which is

endeavouring to rebuild what the old regime destroyed

through its policy of aggression.

Convinced as we are that security and stability in

Iraq mean security for the region as a whole, Kuwait

supports the efforts of the Iraqis to rebuild their

country in these difficult times, so that Iraq may

resume its positive international and regional roles. We

are sure that the Iraqi people will be able to do this. In

that regard, we support Security Council resolution

1546 (2004), which supports the effort that everyone

wishes to see, namely, the preservation of Iraqís

sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity. Kuwait

supports the interim Government of Iraq, which is

expressing the will of the Iraqi people to build a

tolerant Iraq that cares about peace, based upon

democracy, the building of constitutional institutions

and respect for and pursuit of its internal political

process, which would be embodied in the

establishment of the Iraqi National Congress that

would build such institutions, formulate a new

constitution, and conduct new and free elections.

Kuwait aspires to strong brotherly relations with the

new, free Iraq, based on mutual respect, good

neighbourliness, respect for bilateral agreements and

resolutions under international law.

We welcome, likewise, the creation of a tribunal

for former military officers responsible for crimes

against the Iraqi people and the people of Kuwait

committed during the invasion of Kuwait, as well as

for the killing of Kuwaiti prisoners of war and third-

country persons.

We express our appreciation to the United

Nations and international and regional organizations ó

such as the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization

of the Islamic Conference, the League of Arab States

and the Gulf Cooperation Council ó for their support

and their condemnation of the old regime, which killed

prisoners of war and concealed that crime for more

than a decade in flagrant violation of international

humanitarian law. We also thank the interim

Government, which is seeking to investigate what has

happened to those prisoners of war.

We are following with great concern the tragic

situation faced by the Palestinian people in the occupied

Arab territories as a result of Israeli policies and practices

that contravene international and humanitarian law.

We reaffirm our support to the struggle of the

Palestinian people and their legitimate claim to recover

their political rights. We therefore call upon Israel to

respect Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338

(1973), and 1515 (2003), the principle of land for

peace, the road map and the dismantling of the racial

separation wall. That is part of our integral vision for

resolving the situation in the Middle East, which must

be based on mutual respect and cooperation between

all parties.

To ensure stability in the Middle East, we must

also work to eradicate weapons of mass destruction,

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and all parties need to pursue the path of understanding

and dialogue to implement the noble principles of the

Charter of the United Nations governing inter-State

relations and relations among the peoples of the world.

We reiterate, in that regard, that the dispute between

the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of

Iran concerning the three islands that belong to the

Emirates should be resolved by peaceful means. We

urge the two parties to resolve that dispute as rapidly as

possible.

Regarding Darfur, we are all concerned about the

humanitarian tragedy there. We believe that the Sudan

is striving to find a reasonable solution to that

humanitarian dilemma.

Kuwait is pursuing international and regional

efforts to achieve peace and security in both

Afghanistan and Somalia, which for many years have

suffered from a lack of authority and the deterioration

of their economic and political situation owing to the

conflicts between various local forces and factions. We

support the good offices of the United Nations and

regional organizations that have made progress

possible at the political level. We hope that those

efforts will continue so that national reconciliation in

those brotherly nations can be achieved.

The information revolution and the vast

technological progress in the areas of trade and

communications have brought about interdependence.

The world has become a little village, every corner of

which can now be reached. Many States, and

developing countries in particular, have therefore

undergone fundamental changes in their economic

framework in order to take advantage of the

phenomenon of economic globablization and ensure

progress and development for their peoples. Despite

the benefits of those policies, such as the liberalization

of international trade and the lowering of tariff

barriers, many countries, especially the least developed

among them, are suffering from marginalization and

many aggravated social problems, such as poverty,

hunger and the spread of diseases resulting from the

deterioration of their economies. For that reason, we

call upon the international financial institutions, and

the World Trade Organization in particular, to give

special attention to the developing countries and to

consider providing financial support to improve their

economic and social situations. We call upon the

developed countries to increase their development

assistance, to open access to their markets, and to

reduce the debt burden of the developing countries so

that they are able to strengthen their economic

infrastructure.

Kuwait continues to support development

projects in many developing countries through regional

and international institutions and organizations, as well

as through the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic

Development, which we had the honour of establishing

over four decades ago and through which we have

provided more than $11 billion to over 100 countries.

At the Millennium Summit our leaders laid out

the paths to be followed and goals to be attained. Let us

work together to achieve a better future for all peoples.