Qatar, 2006

It

gives me pleasure at the outset to congratulate you,

Madam President, on your election to the presidency of

the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. I wish

you every success in your endeavours. I should also

like to thank your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for

his efforts during the Assembly’s sixtieth session. Our

thanks also go to Mr. Kofi Annan, who has been

working to strengthen the role of the United Nations.

During the September 2005 Summit, the

international community reaffirmed its commitment to

the global partnership for development in order to

achieve internationally agreed development objectives.

The United Nations system remains one of the most

important pillars of international support for that

partnership. I wish to recall here that the State of Qatar

has always been a supportive partner in development

efforts, particularly in combating poverty, because all

that has positive results for stability and international

peace and security.

In 2001 Qatar hosted the Fourth Ministerial

Conference of the World Trade Organization, which

culminated in the Doha Ministerial Declaration. It also

hosted the South Summit in 2005, in which His

Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of

the State of Qatar, launched his initiative to establish

the South’s Fund for Development and Humanitarian

Assistance. Moreover, His Highness reaffirmed Qatar’s

commitment to meet the internationally agreed official

development assistance target relative to its gross

national product. His Highness also offered to host the

first Review Conference of the International

Conference on Financing for Development. I am

pleased to note that the State of Qatar will be hosting

the Sixth International Conference of New or Restored

Democracies, scheduled for 30 October to 1 November

this year.

I should also like to recall here that Qatar has

extended emergency and disaster relief assistance and

made many contributions to the various United Nations

funds and programmes.

We must work to strengthen the role of the United

Nations and revitalize and support its institutions so

that they can carry out the tasks entrusted to them in

different parts of the world. However, if the

Organization is to discharge its role in full, its Charter

must be adhered to and respected. Furthermore, an

agreement must be reached on a new formula to reform

the Security Council and update its working methods.

The General Assembly must be allowed to play its role

in the maintenance of international peace and security

alongside the Security Council.

We were shocked and astonished at the

disproportionate Israeli response against fraternal

Lebanon, which killed hundreds of innocent civilians,

totally decimated its infrastructure and left scores of

Lebanese towns and villages in ruins. It has also

displaced one quarter of Lebanon’s population, which

is indeed a full-scale war crime.

The Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian

question must be accorded top priority, for which a

comprehensive, permanent and just solution is urgently

needed. The Palestinian question is an example of

suffering visited upon a people whose legitimate rights

were denied, a question that has been on the agendas of

27 06-52879

the Security Council and the General Assembly for

more than 50 years. Therefore the international

community must review its position towards a

fundamental issue that it has left unresolved for more

than half a century, thus compounding the tragedy of

the Palestinian people.

Compelling Israel to implement United Nations

resolutions is a collective duty that we must all fulfil so

that international legitimacy will not be branded as

selective. The Palestinian people must be enabled to

exercise their right to self-determination and to

establish their independent State with Jerusalem as its

capital.

A comprehensive, peaceful settlement of the

Arab-Israeli conflict should also be achieved, on the

basis of Israel’s withdrawal from all the territories it

occupied in 1967, including the Syrian Golan and the

Lebanese Sheba’a farms. We also stress that the

guarantee of permanent peace, security and stability in

the region lies in making the Middle East a zone free

from all weapons of mass destruction without any

exceptions.

The difficult situation in fraternal Iraq requires

our cooperation in order to help it overcome this

untenable situation and its repercussions. We have

continuously reaffirmed our commitment to the unity

and sovereignty of Iraq, to the rights of Iraqis to live in

dignity and freedom and to rebuild their country, and

for Iraq to regain its well-deserved place in the region

and among the family of nations.

We want to pay tribute to the Government of the

Sudan, which after tireless efforts has succeeded in

establishing peace in the south of the country. It

continues its sincere efforts to achieve security and

stability in different parts of the country. We fully

support those efforts and look forward to more support

from the international community to fraternal Sudan in

order to preserve its unity and territorial integrity.

We also support ongoing efforts by the League of

Arab States to achieve national reconciliation in

fraternal Somalia and to restore the rule of law in that

country. We call upon the international community to

support those efforts so that stability and security can

be restored to Somalia.

We reaffirm the important role of the United

Nations and the need to enhance it so that it can put

international relations on a solid foundation of

understanding and common interests. We also stress the

importance of resolving conflicts and disputes by

peaceful means and of cooperation among all nations

to end violence and combat terrorism. We must avoid

squandering our resources and wasting our energies on

wars and conflicts. Instead, we should channel them

towards development and progress. We look forward to

a new world governed by the principles of justice,

equality, freedom, democracy and peaceful coexistence

among its peoples, nations and civilizations.