Syria, 1998

I have the pleasure of congratulating you,

Sir, on your election to the presidency of the fifty-third

session of the General Assembly. We are confident that

your wide-ranging expertise in international affairs will

facilitate your task and lead the deliberations of this

session to a successful conclusion. I should like also to

thank your predecessor, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, for his

wise leadership and invaluable contributions during the

preceding session of the Assembly. Nor can I fail to

express our thanks and appreciation to the Secretary-

General of our Organization, Mr. Kofi Annan, for the

efforts he is exerting to enhance the role of the United

Nations in international affairs.

Following the end of the cold war a decade ago,

many, especially in the countries of the North, believed

that this planet, which is home to approximately 6 billion

people, was going to become a more stable, secure and

prosperous world. That conviction proceeded from the

notion that the bi-polar system was unable to achieve

international security except in the framework of a

balance of terror. Nor was the old system able to resolve

regional conflicts due to competition for areas of

influence.

The question now before the international

community is the following: were these convictions

justified? Or did wishful thinking leapfrog reality,

ignoring the following salient facts?

First, nuclear weapons, which are unparalleled in

their destructive capability, have proliferated since the end

of the cold war and have now reached India and Pakistan.

This proliferation has also gained a sort of legitimacy

based on the fact that Israel?s possession of nuclear

weapons was not spoken of during the 1995 Review and

Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. My country,

Syria, Arab countries and most countries in the Non-

Aligned Movement appealed to the five nuclear-weapon

States during the review and extension conferences for

this Treaty not to exempt any country from adhering to

this Treaty, so that the world will not face a new nuclear

arms race. Unfortunately that urgent call fell on deaf ears.

Those who now assume that nuclear-arms proliferation

will be limited to a few countries are mistaken. Syria and

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all Arab countries call for turning the Middle East into a

nuclear-weapon-free zone, as a serious contribution to

halting the nuclear-arms race.

Secondly, in the post-cold-war era regional conflicts

have multiplied, becoming more fierce, and with varying

forms and motives. This has happened to such an extent

that the United States, which is now the only super-Power

in a unipolar world, and the Security Council, the body

responsible for maintaining international peace and security,

are no longer able to contain these conflicts, let alone find

just solutions to them. Anyone who reads the statement

issued by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the five

permanent members of the Security Council, issued at the

beginning of this session of the General Assembly, will

have a headache and will be severely frustrated at seeing

this world face so many regional conflicts and so many

complicated crises without any light at the end of the

tunnel.

Thirdly, we have the recent economic and financial

crises in the world, particularly following the collapse of

financial markets in South-East Asia and the accompanying

sharp decline in the prices of raw materials, especially oil.

All of this has proven that economic globalization is a two-

edged sword and has repercussions which cannot be

confined to those countries tantalized by rapid prosperity

generated by an inflow of capital and foreign investments.

Rather, such effects go beyond those countries to the

countries exporting capital and investments, which were

also tempted by quick profits without paying much heed to

the consequences.

What is going on in the world now under the banner

of globalization is a cause for concern, because it gives

priority to profit over other development factors: economic,

social, cultural and environmental. It also strives to confine

the role of the State to providing guarantees and protection

to major market forces, ignoring the responsibility for the

achievement of social justice for the peoples. Furthermore,

the continuing marginalization of developing countries in

international economic decision-making and the continuing

severe restrictions on access by such countries to

international markets and financial and technological

resources render these countries unable to benefit from the

promised opportunities of globalization.

Strengthening development indicators and increasing

levels of productivity are the more durable means of

limiting the effects of economic crises and reducing the

effects of financial upheavals, especially in developing

countries. At any rate, we believe that such crises and

shake-ups may happen from time to time and may touch

every country, no matter how immune it may seem, so

long as the most powerful and prevalent monetary unit in

the world — the United States dollar — is not stable.

However, the imminent issuance of a European monetary

unit may contribute to establishing a more stable

international financial and economic system.

In any case, we believe there is no alternative to

opening a serious dialogue within the framework of the

United Nations between developing and developed

countries and international monetary institutions in order

to lay a solid foundation for international cooperation

which might save the world from economic surprises and

social upheavals and also contribute positively to the

interests of all countries in the world, in the South as well

as the North.

Since its beginning, the Arab-Israeli conflict has

been given high priority on the agenda of the international

community. International efforts to contain this conflict

have been unrelenting every time it has exploded, because

the Middle East, with its singular strategic position, its

tremendous material and spiritual wealth and its renowned

cultural heritage can be considered the most sensitive

parameter for measuring the state of world peace and

security.

The peace process that was launched in Madrid was

seen as a new beginning to settle this conflict with the

end of the cold war. The Madrid terms of reference, the

American assurances and the results reached constituted

a firm basis which cannot be ignored under any

circumstance.

The insistence of the Israeli Prime Minister on

pursuing a policy hostile to peace and his rejection of the

rights of the Arabs to regain the occupied territories under

the pretext of security for Israel alone — at a time when

Israel?s military arsenal is considered one of the mightiest

and most modern in the world — constitute a challenge

not only to the Arabs, but also to the will of the

international community as a whole.

It seems clear that Israel does not limit its

conception of security to the Arab territories it occupies;

rather it is working to establish a military alliance in the

region which will undermine the peace process and put

the region on a path fraught with dangers, tension and the

potential for explosion.

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What the region and its peoples need is not the

establishment of alliances and axes but the establishment of

a just and comprehensive peace, based on the full

withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Syrian Golan to the

line of 4 June 1967 and from the south of Lebanon and its

western Bekaa, in implementation of the relevant Security

Council resolutions and the land-for-peace principle. In

addition, the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian

people must be safeguarded, including their right to self-

determination and the establishment of their independent

State on their national territory.

The peace process faces a real crisis. It has been in a

stalemate on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks for over two

years. It faces erosion on the Palestinian track, as well, due

to Israeli intransigence. The entire peace process is on the

wane and will be so long as the Israeli Government rejects

the principle of land for peace and attempts to impose on

the Arabs a peace based on occupation and settlerism.

However, Syria has been and continues to be committed to

peace; we consider it a strategic option that requires the

resumption of negotiations from the point at which they

stopped on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks and that

continues to build on the commitments and undertakings

reached until a just and comprehensive peace is established

in the region.

Syria stresses its concern for the unity and territorial

integrity of Iraq and calls for alleviating the suffering of

our brotherly Iraqi people and lifting the sanctions imposed

on them according to a specific timetable. In the meantime,

Iraq is called upon to implement the remaining Security

Council resolutions in a way that guarantees a just

resolution to the issue of Kuwaiti prisoners of war.

Syria also calls for an end to the sanctions imposed on

Libya, for it is our belief that it is possible to address this

crisis in an appropriate legal framework, separate from any

political motivation. We fully support the Libyan demand

for a solution to this problem on a just basis.

Syria stands against terrorism in all its forms and

manifestations; we condemn it on all fronts. We

differentiate between terrorism and the legitimate struggle

of peoples against foreign occupation and for self-

determination and national liberation, which cannot be

considered terrorism. We also condemn killing innocent

civilians everywhere, just as we condemn the State

terrorism exercised by Israel against the Arabs.

We believe that resorting to force and violence in

international relations, in contravention of the United

Nations Charter and the principles of international law,

does not promote international legitimacy but leaves the

door wide open to the law of the jungle. In this regard,

Syria finds the United States attack on the Al-Shifa

pharmaceutical facility in Sudan to be unjustified. We

believe that this attack constitutes a violation of the

principles of international law and the Charter of the

United Nations. From this perspective, Syria supports the

request of the Sudanese Government to the Security

Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the

American allegations relating to that installation.

Syria follows with great concern the sharp conflicts

sweeping some African countries. While expressing its

solidarity and support to the peoples of Africa, Syria calls

on the international community to make the necessary

efforts in close cooperation with the Organization of

African Unity to find solutions to these conflicts in a

manner that consolidates peace, stability and security on

the African continent. The international community is also

called upon to give all types of support to enable African

States to eliminate the scourge of poverty and free

themselves of the burden of debt in order to achieve

sustainable development.

We are also following with great concern the

situation in the Republic of Somalia. We urge all the

Somali parties to respect their undertakings and

implement the agreements reached among them. We call

on them to put the national interests of Somalia above all

other considerations and to cooperate with Arab, African

and international efforts towards the realization of

national reconciliation so as to guarantee the return of

security and stability for the Somali people.

Syria supports the measures taken to ensure the

achievement of peace and security in the Korean

peninsula, and we also support the Korean people?s

aspirations to achieve unity.

Syria stresses anew the urgent need to take all

necessary steps, as promptly as possible, to end the

economic, commercial and financial sanctions imposed by

the United States against Cuba for more than three

decades now. We second Cuba?s call for the resolution of

differences between the two countries through dialogue,

on the basis of equality, mutual respect and good-

neighbourly relations.

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Syria is extremely concerned about the general

situation in Afghanistan and the continuing bloodshed.

Syria strongly condemns the killing of the Iranian diplomats

in Mazar-i-Sharif. This was a violation of the principles of

international law and of the tolerant values of Islam. We

call upon all parties to exercise self-restraint and to work

towards reaching a peaceful solution and national

reconciliation.

Syria supports the stand of the Non-Aligned

Movement which considers the reform of the Security

Council, its democratization and the expansion of its

membership as part and parcel of a package deal that is not

subject to a specific timetable. We emphasize the principles

of equal sovereignty among States and equitable

geographical representation according to the provisions of

the Charter. Syria also believes that the exercise of the right

of veto should be reduced and that its scope should be

limited.

We support the position of the Non-Aligned

Movement concerning the concept of general agreement,

specifically that such agreement should, in conformity with

the provisions of Article 108 of the Charter, require a

majority of two thirds of Member States.

The Secretary-General?s proposed plan for reform was

a positive step to improve the Organization?s efficiency and

enable it to cope with the changes required in the next

stage. The Syrian delegation participated in the discussions

relevant to reforming the United Nations in the spirit of

collective responsibility of Member States to enhance the

role of this international Organization. We believe that

Member States do have a major role to play in

consultations concerning the reforms and in the resulting

resolutions.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights is an important occasion for re-

emphasizing the fact that all human rights are universal and

interrelated and that the international community should

address human rights in a just and comprehensive manner,

free of double standards and manipulations for political

purposes or to interfere in the internal affairs of States, and

taking into account the national characteristics and the

historical, cultural and religious elements of each people

and nation.

Humankind continues to aspire to a world free of

wars, poverty, ignorance and injustice, a world in which

justice, security, stability and sustainable development

prevail. Peoples of the world have pinned their hopes on

the United Nations Charter, which specifies among its

purposes the importance of maintaining world peace and

security, developing relations among nations based on

respect for equality and self-determination of peoples,

achieving international cooperation in the economic,

social and cultural fields and enhancing basic freedoms

for mankind everywhere.

Let us work together seriously and confidently on

the basis of these principles and objectives. Let us not

disappoint future generations. This is not an easy task, but

it is certainly a noble one, which deserves our efforts,

sacrifice, patience and wisdom.