Yemen, 2006

At the

outset, I would like to congratulate the President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-first session on her

election. It is a source of pride for us that an Arab

woman from brotherly Bahrain is presiding over the

session. I would also like to thank Mr. Jan Eliasson,

President of the Assembly at its sixtieth session, for his

valuable and tireless efforts in the conduct of our work

and for the positive results he has achieved for our

Organization, particularly with regard to United

Nations reform. I would also like to warmly welcome

51 06-52885

the Republic of Montenegro as the 192nd Member of

our international family.

I am pleased that this meeting coincides with a

new democratic achievement in my country, Yemen.

Today, 20 September, the second direct presidential

election and elections for local councils have taken

place competitively in a free and fair atmosphere. This

democratic exercise demonstrates the maturity of the

people of Yemen and reflects our country’s

commitment to democracy as a peaceful means of

sharing power and popular participation in

development and economic and social reform.

The recent developments in Lebanon and

Palestine include the destruction of Lebanon’s

infrastructure owing to aggression by the Israeli war

machine — which has caused the deaths of countless

innocent civilians, mainly women, children and the

elderly — threats to murder or assassinate the

leadership of Lebanon and Palestine, extrajudicial and

other practices. These all run counter to the United

Nations Charter, the rules of international law and

international agreements, including the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva

Convention. The massacres committed by the Israeli

war machine against Lebanese and Palestinian

civilians — particularly the Qana II massacre, whose

victims were mostly children under the age of 12 and

which was witnessed by the entire world — have

evoked feelings of denunciation and condemnation by

all people. This requires a firmer stance in the face of

Israeli policies based on violence and State terrorism.

It is even more regrettable that the United

Nations stands by and watches helplessly while the

Lebanese people are subjected to devastation and

destruction caused by Israeli aggression over 34 days.

We would like to reiterate that the implementation of

Security Council 1701 (2006) should not undermine

the territorial integrity of Lebanon and should not lead

to sectarian divisions among the people of that country.

It should also mandate that Israel compensate Lebanon

for all the destruction.

Israeli practices, such as assassinations of

Palestinian individuals, detention of the President of

the Palestinian Parliament, the Deputy Prime Minister

or other Ministers, are a perfect example of Israel’s

total disregard for international law, human rights, or

agreements signed with the Palestinian Authority. This

makes it incumbent upon the Security Council to

firmly deal with such Israeli aggression, to demand the

release of all Palestinian leaders under detention and in

Israeli prisons, and to deal with the Arab-Israeli

conflict neutrally and responsibly. It is only thus that

the Middle East can enjoy stability and Israel can enjoy

security.

In order to achieve a just and comprehensive

peace, Arab countries have requested that the Security

Council consider the Arab-Israeli conflict file

responsibly and fairly in order to put an end to the

conflict and to spare the region further wars and

conflicts. If the Security Council fails to do that, then it

will bear the responsibility for continuing the conflict

in the region, with the attendant suffering and dire

consequences for all parties concerned.

From this rostrum, we call upon the international

community to stand beside the elected Iraqi

Government, to help it spread its authority over its

territory, to put an end to violence and interference by

external parties in the internal affairs of Iraq, to respect

the territorial integrity of Iraq and to put an end to its

occupation.

With regard to the Sudan, we reiterate our

support for the efforts by the Sudanese Government to

bring peace to Darfur, in accordance with the security

plan presented to the Security Council. The decision to

extend the mandate of the African Union forces until

the end of December of this year is welcome. Provision

of adequate logistics and increasing the number of

these peacekeeping forces will enable them to play

their role. The dispatch of any international forces

without the agreement of the Government of the Sudan

constitutes a violation of the principles of the United

Nations Charter.

With regard to Somalia, Yemen would like to

commend the Arab-African efforts for conciliation

between the Transitional Somali Government and the

Union of Islamic Shariah Courts, and the outcome of

the talks held at Khartoum under the sponsorship of the

League of Arab States from 1 to 5 September. We call

upon all international parties to provide support to the

Somali Government so as to enable it to reconstruct the

country and re-establish State institutions. Yemen has

always been a partner in the conciliation process and

supports all efforts by all parties. Yemen emphasizes

that any external interference in Somalia’s affairs could

lead to violence and confrontation in the Horn of

Africa.

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Yemen underlines the right of all countries to

possess nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. We

have reiterated our commitment to the General

Assembly declaration to make the Middle East a region

free of all weapons of mass destruction, including

nuclear weapons, and to compel Israel to comply with

the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to

guarantee stability in the region and to avoid a nuclear

race.

Given our concern for the promotion of trust

among all countries seeking to develop their nuclear

energy for peaceful purposes, we call upon all to

cooperate in the creation of a joint entity for nuclear

research for peaceful purposes, in cooperation with the

International Atomic Energy Agency.

Yemen has reiterated its condemnation of

terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We

believe that this phenomenon, which is alien to our

societies and to the religion of Islam, can be attributed

to many factors, including a feeling of lack of

international justice, the spread of misleading

judgements and decrees, and misconceptions of others

based on race or religion. Such factors have

undermined trust among people and have led to the

spread of extremism and terrorism.

An international conference should be convened

to reach an agreement on an accurate definition of

terrorism and to deal with its root causes, such as

poverty, unemployment, lack of education and the

absence of international justice. A distinction should

also be made between terror against innocent civilians

and the legitimate right of people to resist foreign

occupation.

The Republic of Yemen would like to reiterate its

commitment to the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) adopted in 2000 and to the Monterrey

Consensus. We are convinced that the mobilization of

financial resources for development and their effective

use in developing countries and in countries with

economies in transition are essential for the realization

of a genuine global partnership for development.

We would like to stress here the need to grant

developing countries greater freedom in the

development and management of their development

programmes, in accordance with their national

priorities and their special situations, in conformity

with international strategies for development.

Based on our belief that the individual should be

the focus of development and its ultimate objective, we

have given utmost priority to the MDGs and have

mainstreamed them in our policies and five-year

development plan, 2006-2010, as well as integrated

them into the economic, environmental and social

aspects of our plans.

We have thus adopted a series of measures and

actions for reform in the financial, administrative and

judicial fields, the most recent of which is the total

separation of the judiciary power from the executive

power and the appointment of an independent chief

judge of the country’s judicial authority. We have also

involved civil society organizations, which are key

partners in economic and political development and

progress, and have cooperated with donor countries,

specialized agencies and international organizations in

the implementation of our second five-year plan for the

alleviation of poverty. That plan is based on small

projects and on the expansion of technical education,

the provision of basic services, the promotion of good

governance and the fight against corruption. It is an

ambitious plan that we believe requires international

support in order to achieve its objective and result in a

qualitative leap in human development in Yemen.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we

must review the system of international relations to

base it more on trust, dialogue and cooperation. We all

are in agreement that democracy and the enjoyment of

freedoms are at the core of desired reform, and here I

should like to stress that the reform of national and of

international policies are two sides of the same coin.

Democracy in international relations helps to

promote democracy in national policies and is a

genuine motive for it. That requires that the United

Nations itself be an example to follow in terms of the

exercise of democracy. Thus reform and restructuring

of the United Nations is required, as well as its

revitalization and the restoration of its international

standing and prestige, including through the expansion

of the membership of the Security Council to include

representation by all continents. That should be done in

an equitable manner that guarantees representation by

all cultures and civilizations and also assigns a more

prominent role to the Economic and Social Council in

elaborating international policies relating to economic

and social issues and in the follow-up of their

implementation. It should be done also in a manner

that promotes international efforts to move

53 06-52885

development forward and assist developing countries

to realize the MDGs.

In conclusion, and on behalf of the Government

of the Republic of Yemen, I should like to extend our

thanks and deep appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi

Annan for his tireless and dedicated efforts in the

conduct of the Organization during his two terms of

office, working, patiently and diligently, in the service

of humanity. I would like to wish him every success in

his future endeavours.