Syria, 2009

Allow me to congratulate the fraternal Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya and you personally, Mr. President, on your

election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

this session. I wish you success in your endeavours,

and succeed you will, given your vast experience and

competence.

I also extend our deep appreciation to your

predecessor, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, for

successfully steering the work of the sixty-third

session; I recognize his positive stand vis-à-vis the

fundamental issues with which the international

community is seized. I also wish the Secretary-General

every success in his undertakings as he seeks to fulfil

the purposes and principles of our international

Organization.

We come here every year and stress from this

very rostrum, as do many others, that the Middle East

is one of the most tense regions of the world and that

the situation is extremely ominous. From this very

rostrum, most speakers stress that a just and

comprehensive peace is an urgent requirement for the

realization of the interests of all parties in the region

and the world at large. However, paying lip service to

the need for peace is obviously different from working

for peace. Actions inside and outside the region have

spoken louder than words, and peace has remained

elusive for years.

During that time, Israel waged two devastating

wars against Lebanon and Gaza. It had no qualms

about committing internationally prohibited acts or

breaching international law, encouraged and protected

by the Administration of former United States

President Bush. To date, Israel continues to impose a

stifling siege on Gaza, in contravention of the most

basic humanitarian principles and tenets of

international humanitarian law. These facts have been

confirmed by many investigations, and were most

recently published in the report of the United Nations

Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. The head

of the Mission concluded that Israel had committed

grave violations of human rights law, and international

humanitarian law, including war crimes and possibly

crimes against humanity.

The international approach to the Middle East

question has changed in previous years. Addressing

this issue has become a priority, and has been followed

by immediate action on the ground. This is certainly

reassuring. It is our sincere hope that these efforts will

bear fruit. But the engagement by the new United

States Administration, the members of the Security

Council, the European Union, the Organization for the

Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement

has been continuously confronted with Israeli measures

and positions that ignore the most basic underpinnings

of the peace process. Israel defies the policies of its

friends and allies and undermines their will. Israel also

challenges the will of the overwhelming majority — if

not the entirety — of the international community.

Perhaps more than ever before, Israel has now revealed

its true colours: an entity that has enshrined racism,

aggression and tension-building while balking at peace

and repudiating the advocates of peace.

Israel refuses to freeze illegitimate settlement

building and is thus in breach of its obligations under

international law. Israel continues to confiscate

Palestinian land, build the apartheid wall, Judaize

Jerusalem, expel inhabitants from their homes and

bring in settlers to replace them. This list is in no way

exhaustive. These facts are substantiated by figures

but, in the interest of time, we shall not dwell on them

in detail. Suffice it to say that the two-State solution

advocated by the international community has been

rejected by the Israeli Government. The Israeli Prime

Minister’s comments on the subject are sheer tactical

manoeuvres that are contradicted entirely by the

policies pursued by his Government on the ground.

President Bashar Al-Assad has said that peace is

antithetical to occupation. Peace and occupation cannot

coexist. He stressed that we in Syria seek a just and

comprehensive peace and that peace is our strategic

choice. It is a choice based on the implementation of

Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338

(1973), the Madrid terms of reference, the principle of

land for peace and the Arab Peace Initiative. We have

supported every effort aimed at achieving this goal. To

that end, we entered into indirect talks with Israel

through Turkish mediation and sought to arrive at

common ground that would ultimately enable us to

launch direct negotiations. But the absence of genuine

political will to make peace and the war of aggression

that the Israeli Government waged against Gaza

brought this pursuit to a halt.

25 09-52598

In full view of the world and in defiance of its

unanimous will, Israel has chosen to be a rejectionist

State. It has chosen to challenge the international

community. This is a dangerous position and a stance

that threatens peace and security in the region. The

continued occupation, the Judaization of Jerusalem, the

intensification of settlement activities and the racist

slogans presage serious consequences for the world.

The world must not succumb to the dictates of Israeli

extremists. It must not allow Israel to persist in its

violation of international law and its defiance of

international will and decisions.

Brotherly Iraq continues to bleed. The situation in

Iraq is a cause for serious concern to us as a

neighbouring Arab country. We have continuously

stressed the urgency of preserving the unity of Iraq’s

territory and people while guaranteeing its sovereignty

and safeguarding its independence and its Arab-Islamic

identity. To that end, it is urgent to build Iraqi national

unity on the basis of national reconciliation, which

must include Iraqis of all stripes. Iraqi national unity is

the cornerstone of the reconciliation process, but it will

remain elusive unless the necessary conditions for

national reconciliation are achieved.

We have continuously condemned all aggressive

acts that claim the lives of innocent victims in Iraq. We

have also repeatedly called for the withdrawal of all

foreign troops from Iraq and for the restoration of full

Iraqi independence and sovereignty. We have stressed

our readiness to facilitate that withdrawal by extending

our cooperation in maintaining security in Iraq. It is

our hope that Iraqis will soon be able to arrive, through

constructive dialogue, at solutions that firmly support

Iraq’s unity, strength and prosperity while remaining

fully dedicated and loyal to the unity of the land of Iraq

and its people.

Syria has been dedicated to strengthening

bilateral Syrian-Iraqi relations in all their aspects. We

established a bilateral council for strategic cooperation

in various fields. We were distressed by the recent

“Bloody Wednesday” terrorist bombings in Baghdad,

which we strongly condemn. But we were surprised to

hear, days later, accusations levelled at us —

accusations devoid of any truth — implying that we

harboured those suspected of masterminding those

bombings. These claims and the ensuing developments

are extremely unfortunate and cannot serve the

interests of Iraq or Syria.

We are open to suggestions on how to solve the

current crisis by demanding that real evidence be made

available to substantiate those claims. This has not yet

been done. We stress that protecting the Iraqi people

and safeguarding their interests is one of our priorities.

We are also keen to safeguard the fraternal relations

between the Iraqi and Syrian peoples and express our

satisfaction at the current efforts of Turkey and the

Secretary-General of the League of Arab States.

We have followed with grave concern the recent

developments in Yemen. We hope that security will

ultimately prevail. We support Yemen’s unity, stability

and the prosperity of its people.

Attempts to undermine the Sudan’s unity and to

compromise its security and sovereignty are also a

cause of concern for us. We fully support the Sudan

and its leadership and stress the need to create

favourable conditions conducive to a settlement of all

pending issues. In that regard, we appreciate the efforts

made by the State of Qatar in cooperation with the

League of Arab States and the African Union.

Another cause for concern is the events unfolding

in Somalia, a country already afflicted by war and

internal strife. We call on our brothers there to work for

national reconciliation and to use dialogue as a means

of settling their differences. We urge them to work

towards the unity of Somalia, which as the supreme

national interest should take precedence over any other

consideration, and to lay the foundations for security

and stability in their country.

We support the efforts of the African Union to

settle the existing conflicts that continue to plague

some parts of the African continent, to achieve

development in the countries of Africa and to promote

the African role in the international system.

We also renew our call for the lifting of the

blockade imposed on Cuba for more than half a

century.

For years, Syria has been calling for the

establishment of a zone free of all weapons of mass

destruction in the Middle East region. To this end,

Syria tabled a draft resolution before the Security

Council in 2003 calling for the establishment of such a

zone. Today Syria stresses the need for Israel to

commit to complying with the resolution of the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted

on 18 September of this year regarding Israeli nuclear

09-52598 26

capabilities (GC(53)/RES/17), in which the Agency

called upon Israel to place its nuclear facilities under

comprehensive IAEA safeguards and to accede to the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT). We recall once again the right of all States to

acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, as

guaranteed by the NPT. We fully support constructive

dialogue as a means to settle all differences.

The world is still reeling from a crippling

economic and financial crisis that has adversely

affected the economic and social conditions of most

countries of the world. Very few countries, if any, have

been spared its devastating effects. This crisis led many

to question its root causes, shedding light on the

deficiencies in the financial system and its practices

and thus highlighting the sound practices that could

have prevented the crisis. The world cannot deal with

the crisis as a fait accompli. We must seek answers and

outcomes that endorse sound practices and remedy

systemic imbalances that are bound to affect us all in

the globalized world in which we live. Our common

goal is to establish a more secure economic and

financial world order.

It goes without saying that the countries of the

South have disparate economies and are comparatively

more disadvantaged and adversely affected by the

current crisis than those of the North. The world’s poor

end up paying a higher price for a breakdown that is

not of their making. Rich States are therefore duty

bound to provide all forms of support to poorer

countries to help them overcome this crisis. Poor

countries have earned this support, and any positive

results that it generates will serve the interests of poor

and rich countries alike. We also call for the increased

participation of developing countries in the work of the

Group of 20, which would enable them to put forward

proposals and advance appropriate responses to

overcome the crisis.

We and many others have often called for an

enhanced and reinvigorated role for the United Nations

in order to build a better, more just and more secure

world. We believe that the present moment is

auspicious. We therefore call on all Member States to

work seriously to ensure compliance with the Charter

of our international Organization and to introduce the

necessary reforms in order to promote it, learning from

the lessons of past decades and from our achievements

and failures. We sincerely look forward to a world

governed by respect for international law in which

security, stability and prosperity reign supreme.