Qatar, 1995

At the outset, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate

His Excellency Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral on his

election to the presidency of this historic fiftieth session of

the General Assembly. His election reflects the esteem in

which Member States hold his country, the friendly country

of Portugal, and the confidence that his diplomatic talents

will make possible the successful culmination of the work

of this important session.

I should also like to express my delegation’s esteem

for his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy, for

the competent way in which he conducted the work of the

forty-ninth session.

It is also my pleasure to express Qatar’s full

confidence in and esteem for the Secretary-General, Mr.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali. In fact, he is doing a great deal to

serve this international Organization, and has been

extremely assiduous in implementing its noble principles

and strengthening its role in the maintenance of

international peace and security.

I should like to congratulate the Member States that

have recently joined the Organization. We hope that those

States will be active participants in and will contribute

constructively to the activities of the United Nations and to

the defence of its principles.

This fiftieth session is being held at a historic and

complex turning point in history, where extreme complexity

characterizes the concepts relating to international relations.

These concepts, because of their diversity and the erratic

course they follow, create a number of serious difficulties

and obstacles that face the emergence of the desired

international order. All this has taken concrete form in the

resurgence of inter-ethnic and inter-racial extremist conflicts

that threaten the very foundations of international society,

which should continue to be based on tolerance and the

principles and values of the United Nations. Hence the need

to redouble our efforts to put an end to such conflicts and

to contain their consequences and the threats they pose to

the international community. While expressing our

appreciation for the efforts that have been made by this

Organization to cope with the deplorable events that have

taken place in Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia and

Herzegovina, we are mindful of the difficulties that

obstruct such efforts and make it difficult for the

Organization to find the desired solutions to those

problems.

On top of all this, it is patently clear that the

Security Council, which has adopted pertinent resolutions

to solve these problems, has come face to face with

obstacles that hampered the achievement of the desired

solutions. The continued presence of such obstacles has

affected the credibility and standing of the United

Nations. In the post-cold-war period, the United Nations

has been put to the test in the areas of peace-keeping and

the maintenance of international peace and security.

Hence the urgent need during this fiftieth anniversary to

make every effort to fundamentally reform the United

Nations to enhance its effectiveness and its standing. I

think we all aspire to the goal of reforming the United

Nations, and my country attaches particular importance to

it; it would strengthen the effectiveness of the

international Organization and enhance its image.

We know that the obstacles facing the Security

Council have been the reason behind the demand for

reforming that principal organ with the Charter

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace

and security. A high priority is given to this reform of the

Security Council which tops the list of the desired

reforms of the United Nations. As for the State of Qatar,

it attaches particular importance to efforts to reform the

Council and to increase its membership proportionately

with the increased membership of the United Nations

itself. We must also bear in mind the need to increase the

number of permanent seats to ensure balanced

representation. The great challenge the international

community faces as it strives to reform the Security

Council is to achieve a balanced membership and to

ensure that the changes will make for increased

effectiveness. We should also speed up reform of the

working methods and procedures of the Security Council.

We must review the right of veto and rein in its use as

that right has frequently been used against the interests of

the international community and in favour of individual

States.

Proceeding from its conviction that international

peace can be achieved only through disarmament and

restraining the arms race, particularly with respect to

18

weapons of mass destruction and that halting the

proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is one of the

most important foundations of international peace and

security, the State of Qatar welcomed the Convention on

the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling

and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction,

and supported the extension of the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), even if it

considers that the indefinite extension of the Treaty will

never achieve the desired result unless all States accede to

it. We therefore hope that all the States which have not yet

acceded to the Treaty will do so.

Qatar continues to believe that Israel should accede to

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

and should place its nuclear installations under the

safeguards regime of the International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) as a prelude to the implementation of the

General Assembly’s resolution establishing a nuclear-

weapon-free zone in the Middle East. This would contribute

to equitable, balanced peace and stability in that vital region

of the world.

Since His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-

Thani became Emir, he has stressed Qatar’s adherence to

its regional and international obligations, and has

emphasized that Qatar will act through international and

regional organizations in strengthening international peace

and security. By joining our brethren in the Gulf

Cooperation Council, we have set a course towards the

achievement of the noble goals that reflect the aspirations

of the peoples of the Gulf after peace, stability, cooperation

and prosperity.

The security of the Gulf is one of the major concerns

of its peoples. Our region has witnessed two major wars,

during which our peoples have made great sacrifices that

have taken the shape of financial burdens which we

continue to shoulder at a time when we move towards

development and modernization. We are determined to

overcome the negative effects of those two wars and to

spare the region any further conflict. Moreover, Qatar is

making efforts to establish good relations with all States of

the region on the basis of good-neighbourliness, mutual

respect, non-interference in the internal affairs of others,

respect for international legality, and the settlement of

problems by peaceful means through dialogue, mediation or

recourse to the International Court of Justice.

Proceeding from this, we support resolution of the

dispute between the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic

Republic of Iran with respect to the three islands by

peaceful means.

With regard to Iraq, our position remains unchanged:

Iraq’s unity and territorial integrity must be preserved.

Iraq must implement all Security Council resolutions.

Iraq’s recognition of the sovereignty and territorial

integrity of the State of Kuwait, and of its international

boundaries, in accordance with Security Council

resolution 833 (1993) is a very important step in the right

direction towards full implementation of all Security

Council resolutions, a fact that should speed up the

mitigation of the suffering of the brotherly Iraqi people

who continue to face an acute shortage of essential goods,

especially foods and medicine.

Inspired by the guidelines established by His

Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar has

been participating, to the best of its financial and human

abilities, in addressing the major issues of the Gulf region

and of our Arab and Islamic nation. Qatar, therefore, fully

supports the activities of the Gulf Cooperation Council,

which are in the interest of the well-being of all our

peoples. It is our hope that security and stability will soon

reign in our region, for this is an integral part of the

security and stability of the Middle East at large. To that

end, Qatar is continuing its good offices and its efforts to

improve the situation in the Arab world and to

consolidate Arab solidarity, which will make it possible

for the nation to pursue its special role in the history of

civilization.

It is on the basis of these principles that we have

welcomed the Middle East peace process. We hope that

it will prove successful and that it will at long last bring

a just and lasting peace to the region and lead to Israel’s

complete withdrawal from all the occupied Arab and

Palestinian territories, including the Golan Heights,

southern Lebanon and, particularly, Al-Quds Al-Sharif.

This will make it possible for the Palestinian people to

regain its right to establish a State of its own, on its own

soil, with Al-Quds as its capital.

Qatar welcomes the expanded autonomy of the

Palestinians under the agreement signed last Thursday at

Washington between the Palestinians and the Israelis. We

hope this agreement will open the doors that lead to peace

and stability in the region and will prove to be an

important step towards full implementation of the

Declaration of Principles signed by the two parties in

September 1993.

19

By the same token, Qatar wishes to voice its deep

concern at the fact that talks between Syria and Israel are

lagging behind. We hope for substantial progress on that

track so that the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Arab

Golan may come to an end. We hope also that there will be

progress on the Lebanese-Israeli track, so that southern

Lebanon may be freed from the Israeli presence under

which it has been the victim of much aggression and

oppression.

It is our hope that a just and lasting peace will be

established on the basis of the Madrid formula and the

relevant Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338

(1973) and 425 (1978) and on the basis of the land-for-

peace formula. We therefore call on the General Assembly

to reaffirm all prior resolutions on the question of Palestine

and the situation in the Middle East, so that the goal of a

just, comprehensive peace can be achieved.

My Government follows with great concern

developments in Afghanistan, Somalia and Chechnya. We

appeal for the intensification of international efforts to bring

peace, justice and stability to those areas.

We also reaffirm — as we have frequently done, both

officially and in public statements — our solidarity with the

people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are concerned over

the continuing bloodshed, four years after the outbreak of

the war. Together with many other States, we have

deplored the savage practices of ethnic cleansing pursued

by the Serbian forces under the eyes of the entire world.

Those practices are totally against the most elementary

rules and norms of humanitarian law and the Charter of the

United Nations.

We welcome the military action undertaken by the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in cooperation

with the forces of the United Nations, to put an end to

Serbian aggression. We hope that those measures of

deterrence will make it possible for peace to be achieved at

long last and that the international community will take a

very firm and resolute stand, both through the United

Nations and through the major Powers that are actively

involved, to guarantee the safety of the people of Bosnia

and Herzegovina. By the same token, we hope that the

weapons embargo will be lifted, in order for these people

to defend themselves, to preserve the independence of their

country and to ensure the triumph of the principles of the

Charter. The Serbian barbarity they have endured has

engulfed even the safe areas.

Qatar also supports the stance of the Contact Group

of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which

deems the embargo on weapons to be illegal and supports

the fraternal Muslim people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We are now at a critical stage in the conflict in the

former Yugoslavia. The international community must, of

necessity, act to restore a just peace in the Republic of

Bosnia and Herzegovina and to ensure that that country

may enjoy stability, sovereignty, independence and

territorial integrity and get down to the business of

economic and social development. We hope that the

Serbian war criminals will be duly tried and that this will

be a lesson to all such criminals.

Qatar is profoundly convinced that peace and

development follow the same path, that development is as

necessary for the international community as is peace. It

is possible to ensure continuous development only if there

is peace, and vice-versa. Since sustainable and long-term

development is one of the cornerstones of genuine peace,

it is a high priority for the United Nations and the

international community to focus on development,

particularly in the developing countries.

A commitment to development in all its aspects is,

indeed, the very bedrock of the international economic

order — the new order that we all look forward to and

hope that it will be based essentially on interdependence.

The international community has already started to move

in that direction, through the General Agreement on

Tariffs and Trade and the establishment of the World

Trade Organization. This will help to strengthen the

multilateral trade system, which is based on the

liberalization and expansion of international trade.

As confirmation of this, His Highness the Emir of

the State of Qatar has extolled the merit, from Qatar’s

point of view, of particular political groups, saying that,

despite the fact that ours is a small country, we are trying

to react favourably to the new international situation in

order to find our proper place in it. We are also taking

action to strengthen the ways and means available to us,

for the achievement of that goal.

Our economic objectives are the following: to

exploit our own natural wealth; to export our products on

the best possible terms; to strengthen our industrial base

by consolidating and developing our current industries

and by creating new ones on the basis of our natural

resources, particularly petroleum and gas; to strengthen

and encourage investment in all areas, making it possible

for private capital to be involved in economic

20

development; and to emphasize infrastructure projects, as

these are the main requirements for socio-economic

development.

All this highlights the reason why we attach such

importance to economic and social development as a

mainstay of international peace and security. That is why

development has become a common goal for the

international community. Having taken shape in a number

of international conferences, it should be adopted by all the

nations of the world. We attach particular importance to the

results of the conferences that have been held in recent

years in the context of the importance accorded by the

international community to this common goal, namely, the

United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development, in Rio de Janeiro; the International

Conference on Population and Development, in Cairo; the

World Summit for Social Development, in Copenhagen;

and the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in

Beijing, to emphasize the role of women in development

with due consideration of the cultural differences between

peoples and the various noble ideals of the Islamic faith.

It is our hope that the matters that were debated will

not be used as a pretext for interference in the internal

affairs of other States or as justification for discriminatory

treatment and the imposition of conditions on the provision

of economic assistance or development aid.

I should like to refer in this context to the tendency to

impose, unilaterally or collectively, a carbon tax, for the

purpose, it is alleged, of protecting the environment. The

truth of the matter is that the tax is a purely economic

measure, which will impact negatively on the economies of

the petroleum-exporting countries, particularly the Gulf

States.

The threats that face mankind at present and will

continue to do so in the future are not all political or

military. Such threats as the deterioration of the

environment on a global scale, poverty, underdevelopment,

drugs, epidemics of fatal diseases, terrorism and violations

of human rights which are becoming more and more

serious day by day, are not of a military or political nature.

Regardless, they need to be addressed urgently and global

solutions have to be found for them if they are not to

become untreatable and threaten all humanity.

In just a few days we shall be celebrating the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations. This is an extremely

important occasion, reflecting as it does a genuine desire on

the part of the peoples of the world to preserve the United

Nations as a strong and active Organization whose

purpose is to achieve noble goals and safeguard the future

of mankind. As we celebrate the anniversary, at the

threshold of the twenty-first century, it is our hope that

we shall build a new United Nations that will lead us in

the direction of a new world of genuine peace, security,

under an effective international order that would

guarantee the well-being of all people and preserve the

dignity of man, a world where the strong will not

dominate the weak or the rich exploit the poor; a world

where tolerance and well-being would not be far-fetched

dreams.

If we mobilize the full potential of mankind we shall

be able, under the guidance of the United Nations and its

agencies, to usher in such a brave new world.