Bahrain, 2007

It is my pleasure to congratulate you, Sir, upon your

election as President of the Assembly at this session.

There is no doubt that your expertise and your

knowledge of international affairs will ensure anther

successful session this year and will contribute to

fulfilling the aspirations of our peoples for the United

Nations.

I take this opportunity to express my deepest

thanks and appreciation to our dear sister, Her

Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, President

of the General Assembly at its sixty-first session, and

to commend her for the way in which she so ably and

wisely guided the work of the Assembly. As a result,

serious ideas were put forward that yielded tangible

results for the development of the Organization and the

revitalization of its role. In that respect, we want to

express our appreciation to all delegations that

displayed a spirit of cooperation with her during her

presidency.

I have the pleasure also to thank His Excellency

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his ongoing efforts

to strengthen and develop the role of the United

Nations. We are confident that the Secretary-General’s

long experience as an able diplomat will enable him to

undertake further efforts to strengthen the effectiveness

of our international Organization.

In our joint endeavours to achieve world peace,

prosperity and justice, we must address the challenges

and dangers confronting our world today from a

standpoint of faith in our one human destiny. We

should realize that international security is based on

joint efforts to guarantee regional security and the

stability of States. At the same time, international

peace requires respect for international legitimacy, the

rule of law and justice. Since comprehensive

development is a national and international

requirement, it is important that we collectively and

seriously face threats regardless of their forms or

manifestations, such as conflict, war, nuclear

proliferation, terrorism, environment disaster, poverty,

backwardness and extremism, in accordance with the

principles and purposes of the Charter of the United

Nations and the resolutions and decisions adopted by

the General Assembly, including the United Nations

Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2).

The resolution containing the Millennium

Declaration was a unique and pioneering endeavour

which embodied a consensus among the world leaders

who set out the goals we must reach in this new

millennium. In this respect, the Kingdom of Bahrain is

proud, by the grace of God, to have witnessed

comprehensive political developments in its

democratic march forward, under the leadership of His

Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, King of

Bahrain, where free and fair elections were held with

broad participation.

Meanwhile, its comprehensive development

efforts were crowned by the United Nations presenting

the 2006 Special Citation of the United Nations Human

Settlements Programme Scroll of Honour Award to His

Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, Prime

Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain. This reflected

international appreciation for the developments that

continue to be witnessed by the Kingdom, especially in

the field of urban development.

Social and economic achievements, under the

patronage also of His Highness Shaikh Salman bin

Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince and Commander-in-

Chief of the Bahrain Defence Force, have continued

unabated. They are based on strategies and policies

designed to ensure the welfare of all citizens by

encouraging investment, strengthening the national

human rights machinery, reforming the labour market

and developing the education sector.

In the decades since the establishment of the

United Nations, our world has witnessed both unipolar

and bipolar world orders. Worldwide events and the

ensuing results proved that such orders were not

enough to guarantee security, peace, stability and

prosperity in the world. Therefore, the time is now

right to enable everybody to participate effectively in a

universal system based on a just multilateralism that

guarantees collective work towards achieving common

goals.

We, as the United Nations, pledged in the

Charter, in the name of our peoples to save succeeding

generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm

faith in fundamental human rights. That calls upon the

international community promptly and effectively to

address threats to international peace and security. At

the forefront of those threats are the ongoing regional

issues that the Middle East faces on various fronts, the

most important of which is the situation in the

Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories.

In this respect, we welcome the initiative of

President George Bush of the United States to convene

an international conference on Middle East peace this

year. We hope that this will mark the beginning of a

new stage in dealing with the core issue of the Arab-

Israeli conflict in a just and equitable manner, putting

an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people and to

the occupation since 1967 of the Palestinian territories,

the Syrian Golan and other occupied Arab territories in

sisterly Lebanon. It should also lead to the

establishment of an independent, contiguous and viable

Palestinian State, with Jerusalem as its capital. Such a

State should also be able to engage in development and

to live in peace and stability with all States in the

region, including Israel, in accordance with the Arab

Peace Initiative, United Nations resolutions and other

relevant international agreements and terms of

reference.

The second front is represented by the events in

brotherly Iraq, whose people suffer from continued

insecurity and instability as a result of the ceaseless

waves of violence and the killing of innocent people. It

is our view that the responsibility for breaking out of

this vicious circle and achieving national reconciliation

and stability lies primarily with the Iraqi people and

their political leadership. To enable Iraq to do that,

there must be no interference in Iraq’s internal affairs,

and its borders must be fully respected. We stress here

how important it is for neighbouring States, the Arab

League and the United Nations to continue to support

the legitimate Iraqi Government and its efforts to

maintain security and stability in Iraq and to preserve

its Arab and Islamic identity.

It seems clear that the attainment of stability in

Lebanon is closely bound to free national

reconciliation, and to strengthened national, Arab and

international efforts and support for Lebanon’s

legitimacy, with a view to preserving its security,

safety and stability. Lebanon is an integral part of the

system of regional peace and security in the Middle

East and as such should be supported. We express our

regret at the assassinations of many politicians,

officials and innocent people in Lebanon. We hope that

Lebanon will overcome the current crisis so that its

people can live in security and peace.

The stability and unity of the Sudan are

fundamental pillars of the political, economic and

social unity of Africa. We commend the decision of the

brotherly Sudan to agree to the deployment of a United

Nations-African Union hybrid force in Darfur. In that

context, we hope that the parties to the conflict in the

Sudan will come together for the sake of their country

and its prosperity.

The Kingdom of Bahrain recently joined the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), because

of its belief in the Agency’s important role in

strengthening nuclear non-proliferation. In order to

avoid a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, the

Kingdom of Bahrain underlines the importance of

freeing the region from nuclear weapons. It therefore

urges the parties concerned, including the Islamic

Republic of Iran, to be more transparent and to

cooperate fully with the terms of the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) so as to

build tranquillity and peace of mind among

neighbouring States in the Gulf. The Kingdom of

Bahrain reaffirms the right of all States to utilize

nuclear power for peaceful purposes. It also demands

that Israel place all its nuclear facilities under the

comprehensive safeguards regime of the IAEA and

become a party to the NPT in order to promote the

Treaty’s universality.

In order to promote friendly relations and

cooperation between members of the Gulf Cooperation

Council (GCC) and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the

Kingdom of Bahrain reaffirms the right of the brotherly

United Arab Emirates to recover its three occupied

islands. It hopes that the two countries will increase

their efforts and their contacts to resolve this issue

either through direct negotiation or by referring it to

the International Court of Justice.

Global climate change has become one of the

most dangerous challenges threatening the world and

its inhabitants. Climate change not only has an impact

on the environment, but also severely affects the

world’s economic and social order and hinders

development. We therefore call upon all States to

cooperate in order to identify solutions and ways to

deal with this phenomenon. Here I wish to commend

the high-level event on climate change, convened by

the Secretary-General on 24 September 2007 in New

York, on the theme “The future in our hands:

Addressing the leadership challenge of climate

change”.

Our faith in a single human destiny requires us to

consolidate a culture of peace, brotherhood and

dialogue among all nations and peoples and to abandon

phenomena of hatred, discrimination and division —

including what has been dubbed Islamophobia —

which some are promoting to incite upheaval and

hatred between peoples in order to serve their own

narrow political agendas and interests. Those

individuals forget that Islam is a monotheistic religion

and that it stresses brotherhood, love, coexistence and

tolerance. We hope in this context that the High-level

Dialogue to be held by the General Assembly on 4 and

5 October will contribute to reinforcing the values of

tolerance, understanding and respect for religions and

cultures.

The Kingdom of Bahrain reaffirms the

importance of joint efforts towards a new international

environment, in which we can achieve our hope and

aspiration to live in peace, security and stability in a

world in which mankind will also live in respect,

dignity and humanity; a world in which nations will

achieve development and build prosperity and well-

being; a world that will accept the cultures of others in

peaceful coexistence, free from hatred and intolerance;

and a world that believes in the unity of human destiny

and will work to attain security, prosperity, justice and

peace for humankind.