Bahrain, 2009

With great pleasure I extend heartfelt congratulations

to my brother, His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam

Treki, Secretary of African Union Affairs of the Libyan

Arab Jamahiriya, on his unanimous election to the high

office of President of the General Assembly at its sixty-

fourth session. His extensive diplomatic experience

and intimate knowledge of the United Nations will

undoubtedly enable him to conduct the work of this

session with great effectiveness.

I wish also to put on record my appreciation for

the efforts of the former President of the General

Assembly, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of

Nicaragua, for his able stewardship of the sixty-third

session of the General Assembly and for the many

enlightened proposals he made during his tenure to

enhance and develop the Organization.

My highest appreciation also goes to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his tireless

efforts to enhance the purposes and principles of the

Charter and to promote the role of the Organization

and enhance its efficiency in coping with new

developments and responding to the emerging needs of

our peoples.

Our belief in open-mindedness, tolerance,

diversity, non-violence and rejection of extremism

requires us first to free our minds of egoism and

prejudice in order to replace conflict with dialogue,

disagreements with consensus and violence with

persuasion, thus broadening our alliances and outreach

efforts. We must exert greater efforts to show tolerance

towards those who do not necessarily share our values

and ideas. Indeed, certain philosophical or

argumentative issues can be tackled and resolved only

if each party is open to the other, willing to coexist

with the other and ready to resist preconceived ideas

and stereotypes. The presence of common ground and

of mutual understanding can help to create a more

progressive and creative world and hence more secure,

based on tolerance, constructive dialogue and human

coexistence.

While the world has become a small village as

distances have been effectively abolished thanks to

technological advances and the communications

revolution that has erased barriers and frontiers, it is

still dominated by political antagonisms, as States

continue to pursue conflicting individual interests. This

requires us all to design pragmatic strategies for the

future that safeguard everyone’s interests. That can be

achieved only through mindsets capable of assimilating

these transformations and processing them to serve

humanity and to ensure international security and

stability.

It is clear that global security cannot be achieved

through the sole efforts of the super-Powers, because

the challenges we face are more serious, daunting and

more widespread than ever before. This requires a

broader global alliance of United Nations Member

States as well as the support of the entire United

Nations system in the interest of the international

community as a whole. At the same time, it requires

national strategies to address the challenges, problems

and issues through close and sustained coordination

among nations. The task that burdens us today requires

that we discuss all the issues threatening our world,

while taking into account the historical background and

the particular values, ideas and traditions of our

respective societies. At the same time, each party must

be ready to understand and appreciate the positions and

characteristics of the other and be ready to collectively

fight hatred and prejudice.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has always been a

melting pot of diverse civilizations, cultures, religions

and races and since time immemorial has adopted the

concept of tolerance and openness towards the other

and coexistence; thus, we firmly believe that finding

common ground between universal civilizations and

cultures and building a culture of peace among peoples

is necessary. In that context, the peaceful settlement of

conflicts is deeply rooted in our values and our

traditions, which are guided by the principles of our

Islamic faith.

The Arab-Israeli conflict of the past six decades

has had a great effect on our generation. It is a sad

legacy that has left behind misery and human suffering,

poisoned international and regional relations and

continues periodically to exacerbates tension, violence

and military confrontation in the Middle East. We have

tried repeatedly and in vain to find a solution to this

chronic conflict. To be sure, one conference after

another has been held, and initiative has followed

initiative. But we have been unable to deliver our

message to the minds, hearts and homes of the people

of the region. That is the essence of the proposal that

His Highness Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa,

Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain, presented in

his article published in The Washington Post on

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16 July, which makes a meaningful contribution to the

adoption of a pragmatic approach to ending the

conflict. His Highness wrote:

“Our biggest mistake has been to assume that you

can simply switch peace on like a light bulb. The

reality is that peace is a process, contingent on a

good idea but also requiring a great deal of

campaigning — patiently and repeatedly targeting

all relevant parties.”

Careful examination of this argument reveals the

correct approach to addressing the Arab-Israeli

conflict, namely, directly and expeditiously

communicating our Arab Peace Initiative to the Israeli

people through their own information and news media.

In so doing, we will be in a better position to explore

the path to peace.

Today, wisdom requires that we use available

communications and media technology prudently and

with awareness in order to establish the channels and

structures that will enable us as leaders, Governments

and civil society to establish the will and momentum

necessary to create an environment conducive to

advancing the peace that we aspire to. Because today,

dialogue has become an omnipresent issue on the

global agenda of the United Nations and other

international forums, as shown by the many ongoing

dialogues, including the dialogue among civilizations,

dialogue of cultures and the interfaith dialogue. All

these processes aim at enhancing peaceful coexistence

between nations and peoples and represent the

principal course of action to eliminate the causes of

conflict, tension and discord.

The Middle East peace process requires that we

all exert greater political and diplomatic efforts in

order to achieve the two-State solution — Israel and

Palestine — as part of a comprehensive and just

settlement based on equal security for all the nations of

the Middle East region. We believe that the failure to

end this conflict is due simply to the lack of a

methodology based on justice and balance and to the

absence of a binding implementation mechanism. We

are all aware that the Arab side went to great lengths to

make it clear that it supports peace as an irreversible

strategic option.

The Arab Peace Initiative unequivocally

confirmed that position. We therefore expect the

international community, and particularly the most

influential leading Powers, to exert effective pressure

on Israel to freeze and eventually dismantle all

settlements established in the territories occupied in

1967, to ensure demarcation of the borders of the

Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital,

peacefully coexisting with Israel, and to withdraw from

all the occupied Syrian Golan and Lebanese territories,

in conformity with the relevant resolutions of

international legitimacy and the requirements of the

Road Map and the Arab Peace Initiative.

Here I would like to commend the speech of

President Barack Obama, delivered from this very

rostrum, which we consider a frame of reference for

the resumption of the Middle East peace process.

President Obama explicitly affirmed the need to

relaunch negotiations on final status issues — notably,

security for both Israelis and Palestinians, boundaries,

refugees and Jerusalem — rejected the continued

illegitimate Israeli settlement activity in Palestinian

territories and called for the creation of a contiguous

and viable Palestinian State.

Among the other challenges and concerns

confronting our region is the question of nuclear

proliferation in the Middle East and the Gulf region.

The Iranian nuclear programme is undoubtedly among

the causes for this common concern; nonetheless, it

should be dealt with in such a way as to spare our

region the threat of confrontation. This can best be

achieved through diplomatic means. It is in that spirit

that the Kingdom of Bahrain, pursuant to Security

Council resolution 1887 (2009), renews its call on the

international community to actively work towards

making the Middle East, including the Gulf region, a

zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of

mass destruction, thus ensuring the security and well-

being of the peoples of the region and the world at

large, and to call upon Israel to accede to the Nuclear

Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to achieve its

universality. All nuclear facilities and activities in the

Middle East should be placed under International

Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, while

acknowledging the legitimate right of States to possess

nuclear technology for peaceful uses in the areas where

it has become vital for development and the

diversification of energy sources, in conformity with

relevant international agreements.

15 09-52598

Other important regional issues are also a matter

of concern to us. Foremost among these is the situation

in brotherly Iraq, whose sovereignty and territorial

integrity it is important to affirm, while not interfering

in its internal affairs. We should also condemn all

terrorist activities perpetrated against Iraq with a view

to destabilizing its security and rekindling sectarian

hatred there.

Also, in order to build confidence between the

Member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council and

Iran, it is imperative to reach a settlement on the

question of the occupied islands belonging to the

United Arab Emirates, through either direct

negotiations or referral to the International Court of

Justice. We also reaffirm the need for joint

international and regional efforts to assist brotherly

Yemen, under the supervision of the United Nations, in

coping with the heavy refugee burden and focusing on

its development efforts and the restoration of security

and stability throughout its territory. Similarly, we

stress the importance of preserving peace, stability and

unity in the brotherly Sudan and we look forward to

the cooperation of all relevant parties to resolve the

Darfur issue and to achieve the desired peace.

We urge the international community to shoulder

its responsibilities regarding security in Somalia,

whose internal troubles and fragile central Government

have led to the spread of maritime piracy in the Gulf of

Aden and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, much to the

detriment of international navigation and trade. Also,

the Kingdom of Bahrain once again reaffirms its

consistent position concerning the sovereignty of the

brotherly Kingdom of Morocco over the its entire

national territory and calls on the international

community to support the negotiation process initiated

by the Security Council, to maintain its momentum and

activate it.

With peace and development the twin concerns of

our world, it is only natural to feel frustration in the

face of the prevailing environmental degradation,

pandemics, desertification, poverty, water scarcity,

depletion of the ozone layer, climate change and the

world financial crisis. These challenges represent an

imminent threat both to our life now and to that of

future generations. It is therefore no overstatement to

say that in the twenty-first century our destinies are

intertwined, and that we need to redouble our

collective efforts to address these universal dangers

that daily threaten humanity and its health, food and

security.

In this regard, the Kingdom of Bahrain, in

cooperation with the United Nations and in the

presence of the Secretary-General, hosted in May the

launch of the 2009 Global Assessment Report on

Disaster Risk Reduction. The report deals with issues

pertaining to the protection of lives and property in

natural disaster situations related to global warming,

earthquakes, floods and rising sea levels. We hope that

the major industrial countries will play a key role in

forging an agreement at December’s Copenhagen

Climate Change Conference, with a view to curbing

harmful greenhouse gas emissions. It is our hope that

the necessary political will can be mustered to respond

to this threat to humanity and to make our world safer

and more sustainable.

In this context, the Kingdom of Bahrain, in its

capacity as a small island developing State, wishes to

express great concern at the evident causal relation

between climate change and rising sea levels, which

poses a serious threat to our world. We are in

agreement with the other small island developing

States in their concern over the adverse impact of the

increase in average global temperature.

In conclusion, the gravity that characterizes our

present session, as exemplified by the responsible

discussions in the first week, notably at the

22 September Summit on Climate Change and the

24 September Security Council summit (see S/PV.6181),

reconfirms our need to return to the spirit of the

Charter: that the United Nations is the principal forum

for multilateral cooperation to address a wide range of

contemporary issues. The United Nations as an

institution is not limited merely to the maintenance of

international peace and security. Rather, it is the

principal forum for the coordination of positions and

efforts aimed at addressing the challenges threatening

human beings and their environment, alleviating

poverty, controlling pandemics and settling conflicts

and wars through dialogue, negotiations and other

peaceful means in a world guided by tolerance,

peaceful coexistence and security for current and future

generations.