Bahrain, 2004

Mr. President, at the

outset, I have the pleasure to extend my most sincere

congratulations and best wishes to you and your

friendly country of Gabon on the occasion of your

election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

its fifty-ninth session and to wish you every success in

your work. May I take this opportunity to thank your

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Julian Hunte, Minister

of Foreign Affairs of the friendly country of Saint

Lucia, for the intensive efforts he exerted during his

presidency of the last session.

I also would like to take this opportunity to

express my country’s appreciation to Secretary-General

Kofi Annan for the great efforts he has made to

enhance and strengthen the role of the United Nations

in maintaining international peace and security.

Since the signing of the Charter in 1945 in San

Francisco, the United Nations has played a vital role in

addressing many international political, economic,

social and humanitarian issues.

Our world today is witnessing the interlinking of

different issues in politics and in regional and

international security with other issues of development,

the environment, culture, women and human rights. As

a result, international interests have become

interwoven and the distinction between local and

international questions has almost vanished in light of

the spread of globalization. People need the United

Nations now more than they did a half a century ago.

With newly developed understanding, they have a

greater day-to-day need to keep up with the modern

developments of the twenty-first century and the spirit

of the age, led by multilateral diplomacy, which looks

at both present and inherited problems from a new

practical perspective and understanding. The idea of

reforming the United Nations, including the collective

security system, is indeed an ambitious one. However,

we believe that its implementation is not an impossible

dream but a necessity. The international community

must respond, through innovative thinking, practical

methods and a collective determination, in order to

achieve democracy in international relations, maintain

the spirit of the Charter, and devise practical solutions

to national and regional conflicts and mitigate their

consequences for the development process in Member

States.

In that context, we would like to reiterate our

support for the efforts made by the Secretary-General

to reform the Organization and enhance its capacity to

shoulder its responsibilities and carry out it missions.

We look forward with great interest to the report

that the Secretary-General will present in December on

the outcome of the meetings of the High-Level Panel

on Threats, Challenges and Change. We hope that these

results and recommendations will not only meet the

hopes of the peoples of the world but will also be

sufficient to address the threats and problems that beset

international relations on all sides.

As reform and modernization of the United

Nations have become a goal for the majority of its

Members, by the same token, leaders and political

experts in many parts of the world, including the Arab

world, have become aware that reform and

modernization are important issues in their societies in

order to address the demands for change and the

movement of history, and that these issues must be

addressed with clear-sightedness and wisdom, to meet

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the hopes and aspirations of the new generation for

progress and democratization.

As a result of that historic political awareness, the

reform and democratization process has made great

strides in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Bahrain has moved

rapidly in the building of democracy and the widening

of popular participation since the adoption of the

National Action Charter by the people of Bahrain on

14 February 2001, and municipal and parliamentary

elections in 2002.

It is clear that the call for reform and

democratization, which has become an important

contemporary element in international policy, has

become a demand of both industrialized countries and

of many developing countries as well. This year, the

President of the Group of Eight invited His Majesty

King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, the King of Bahrain,

to participate in its annual Summit held in Georgia,

United States, from 8 to 10 June last, in recognition of

His Majesty’s important role in the reform process and

the building of democracy in Bahrain.

The phenomenon of terrorism is a source of

concern for the international community, because of its

horrific spread to many different parts of the world.

Indeed, no region or country is immune. In that regard,

Bahrain reaffirms its condemnation of terrorism in all

its forms and manifestations, regardless of its sources

or motivation. We reassert that there can be no

justification whatsoever for terrorism, and that terrorist

acts are not condoned by any religion or belief.

Bahrain has condemned, and continues to

condemn, terrorist acts against countries and peoples

through which innocent lives are lost, and reaffirms its

solidarity with the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

and its support for all measures it has taken to

overcome these criminal actions, which contradict the

principles and tenets of Islam, a religion of tolerance

and mercy. Bahrain also condemns and denounces all

terrorist acts around the world, including the events at

the school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in Russia.

In examining terrorism and its threats, it is

necessary to review its causes in order to limit its

destructive danger. Among those causes, we find

poverty, ignorance, backwardness, unemployment, a

culture of extremism, fundamentalism, ethnic

prejudice, feelings of national desperation and

frustration, and violations of human rights.

To address this terrorist phenomenon, and within

the framework of regional and international cooperation

to fight it, Bahrain and the other countries of the Gulf

Cooperation Council (GCC) this year signed the GCC

Anti-Terrorism Agreement, a further step in

overcoming this scourge, which must be eradicated.

Israel is increasing its oppressive measures and

practices in the occupied territories against the

Palestinian people. It does not respect or comply with

international law and international legality by taking

areas of Palestinian land in its construction of the so-

called barrier, which consolidates the occupation and

the settlements, and extinguishes hopes for an

independent Palestinian State — the legal and

inalienable right of the Palestinian people.

The international community today must take a

courageous stand in the face of these actions, in

particular following the advisory opinion of the

International Court of Justice delivered on 9 July 2004,

and General Assembly resolution ES-10/15 of 20 July

2004, which represent a triumph for international

legality and a clear condemnation of the building of the

separation wall, which contradicts the principles of

international law. The international community must

use that opinion to pressure Israel to end its occupation

of all Palestinian and Arab territories, including the

Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese Shaba’a Farms.

The Arab countries reaffirm their commitment to

the Arab peace initiative agreed at the Beirut Summit

in 2002, and reaffirmed by the most recent Arab

Summit in Tunis in 2004, which calls for a complete

Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land and the

establishment of an independent Palestinian State with

Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the

resolutions of international legality, in particular

Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973),

1397 (2002) and 1515 (2003).

We call once again on the Quartet to resume its

efforts to promote the peace process, and we demand

that the Government of Israel fulfil its obligations

under the peace plan, as set out in the road map.

The situation in brotherly Iraq remains a continued

source of concern for the countries and peoples of the

region, in particular the violence and insecurity that

threaten it, despite continued efforts to maintain peace,

especially following the establishment of the Interim

Government, which took office on 28 June 2004, and

in spite of the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqi

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authorities, the convening of the national conference

and steps taken towards the creation of an interim

National Legislative Council.

The upcoming stage requires that a vital and

effective role be played by the international community,

represented by the United Nations, which will bear the

heavy burden of supporting the interim Iraqi

Government and helping it to fulfil the tasks required

of it under Security Council resolution 1546 (2004).

Bahrain has on more than one occasion expressed

its support for efforts to maintain peace and security in

Iraq, and to create the conditions for the reconstruction

of the country and the maintenance of its unity. It also

reaffirmed its willingness to participate in Arab and

international efforts to rebuild Iraq and to maintain its

unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The security and stability of the Arab Gulf region

is a matter of great concern to the Government of

Bahrain, which is constantly seeking peace and

stability in a region that has suffered greatly during the

past three decades. The Kingdom of Bahrain, which is

a member of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council, calls

upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to work to peacefully

resolve the issue of the islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser

Tunb and Abu Musa, which belong to the United Arab

Emirates, either through serious bilateral negotiations

aimed at an agreement between the two neighbouring

countries or by arbitration.

Given the Kingdom of Bahrain’s follow-up of

efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation and to re-

establish stability in important regions of the Arab

world, we welcomed the Naivasha Agreement between

the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s

Liberation Army. We are anxious to see an end to the

civil war there, which has taken a great toll in terms of

human life and material resources. Bahrain also

welcomed the agreement between the Sudan and the

United Nations aimed at ending the bloodshed in the

Darfur region, as well as the steps taken by the

Sudanese Government to implement its obligations in

accordance with the agreement that it signed with the

Secretary-General on 3 July.

Bahrain also expresses its support for the efforts

of the African Union, which is working with the

Sudanese Government with a view to resolving the

humanitarian crisis in Darfur. We affirm the

importance of respecting the Sudan’s sovereignty,

independence and territorial integrity. We call on the

Security Council to give the Government of the Sudan

sufficient time to deal with the crisis and offer the

necessary financial assistance to bring it to an end.

Mr. Khan (Bangladesh), Vice-President, took the

Chair.

Today more than ever we are committed to the

principles and purposes of the Charter. We now have a

deeper understanding of the need for a modernized and

more advanced Organization that is capable of taking

part in collective international action, of responding to

the changes and challenges of the twenty-first century

and of ensuring greater democracy in international

relations, equal rights among the peoples of the world

and equal sovereignty among States. It must also be

able to arrive at solutions for problems that may occur

in the future on the basis of international partnership,

so that any as yet unforeseen challenges facing

humanity in the coming decades can be dealt with.

Past mistakes and current failures should not

divert us from our ambitions for a better future — a

future free from the scourge of war, a future of peace

and justice, where human rights and the dignity of the

individual are respected; a future where resources are

developed and where society can progress, where greed

has been eliminated and where countries cooperate

within an advanced international order that promotes

the rule of law and disseminates the values of human

rights, generosity and justice, without prejudice,

arrogance or discrimination.