Bahrain, 2014

At the outset, it gives me great

pleasure to congratulate you warmly, Mr. President,

and, through you, your friendly country Uganda upon

your election as President of the General Assembly at

its sixty-ninth session. I take this opportunity to wish

you luck and success in the noble mission entrusted to

you, and I affirm the Kingdom of Bahrain’s support

for your judicious proposal regarding the formulation

and adoption of a post-2015 development agenda that

will build on past achievements in the context of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the well-

being of all people.

It would be remiss of me not to commend your

predecessor, Ambassador John Ashe, for his excellent

conduct of the work of the Assembly during its sixty-

eighth session and his outstanding and successful

efforts.

We also greatly appreciate the efforts of Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon to revitalize and strengthen the

Organization’s role and to realize its objectives in all

fields. I commend the report he introduced earlier in the

current session on the work of the Organization (A/69/1).

It demonstrates the daunting responsibility assumed by

our Organization in creating an environment conducive

to seeking appropriate solutions to the problems and

challenges that we all face.

The inaugural statement by the Secretary-General

at the opening of the general debate (see A/69/PV.6) shed

light on a number of the challenges facing us, including

climate change, the spread of diseases, particularly the

Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the aggravated refugee

problem, the propagation of extremism, policies

of exclusion, violence, violations of human rights,

particularly those affecting women, and issues related

to health, education and food security.

My country supports the Secretary-General’s

urgent call to conclude a global climate agreement at the

forthcoming Lima and Paris conferences and stresses

the importance of the Green Climate Fund, designed to

mitigate the effects of climate change.

It is a matter of particular pride for me to mention

the vigorous efforts undertaken by the Kingdom of

Bahrain and the resulting successes in countering

the numerous challenges and instability currently

facing the region. As classified by the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) 2014 Human

Development Report — which is based on objective

statistical criteria regarding, first and foremost, health

care, education, per capita income and the equality of

women — the Kingdom of Bahrain is ranked among the

countries with “very high human development”. That is

a status achieved through persistent hard work, and we

will endeavour to maintain it.

Those goals, however, have never been an end in

themselves. The principal objective is to achieve the

well-being of Bahraini citizens and to protect all those

who live within the borders of the Kingdom, an oasis of

security and calm enjoyed equally by all.

I am pleased to recall in that context the award

bestowed on His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa

by the Foundation for Coexistence among Religions in

recognition of His Majesty’s outstanding contributions

in the field of dialogue among civilizations and

cultures. I also note that the fourteenth Conference on

All Civilizations in the Service of Humanity was held in

Manama in early May under the high-level patronage of

His Majesty the King and with the participation of the

United Nations and a distinguished group of thinkers,

scholars and opinion-makers. The Conference adopted

the Bahrain Declaration, which has been circulated and

deposited as an official document of the United Nations

(A/68/959, annex).

Additionally, I would like to mention His Majesty’s

initiative to establish an Arab human rights tribunal.

The initiative has been approved by all States members

of the League of Arab States, and the statute has been

adopted. I would also like to mention the launch in

Bahrain in November 2013 of the UNDP report Water

Governance in the Arab Region, which calls for the

adoption of a joint Arab water-management strategy.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has continued to play an

energetic role in the United Nations system, where it

seeks to further progress through gradual and steady

reform and modernization along the lines envisaged by

His Majesty the King. Such reform would be based on a

strategy of common denominators, continuous and open

dialogue and a national exchange of views — the same

strategy as led to the early achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals. Accordingly, the strategies and

preparations for the post-2015 development agenda are

also based on tireless work, determination, persistence,

good faith and comprehensive planning and are aimed

at promoting continual and enhanced progress and

serving the interests of the Kingdom’s citizens and

residents alike.

Our region is going through a phase of extreme

difficulty — probably the most difficult in its modern

history — in which a climate of instability, chaos,

tension and savage, bloody and unprecedented terrorism

prevails. Of the many contributing factors, the most

salient are the following.

First, the accelerated emergence of terrorist groups

of various global dimensions and affiliations. They

thrive in our region, exhibiting the greatest savagery

and callousness. Not only do they target innocent

people in general, they also engage in such inhumane

practices as mass murder, public beheadings and the

persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, which

they displace, destroying their cultural heritage,

depriving them of religious freedom and causing them

to flee their homes. They attack entire cities and declare

war on sovereign countries in regional and international

settings, in complete disregard of all religious doctrines

and the intrinsic human values — tolerance, equality,

moderation and respect for cultural diversity — that

have enabled human civilizations, including our Arab

and Islamic civilization, to coexist. These terrorist

groups — they include Al-Qaida, the Islamic State in

Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Hizbullah, and their

extensions and counterparts — recruit their fighters

from both East and West and perpetrate horrific terrorist

acts. The young and the old alike are killed, women are

taken as war bounty, families are displaced and privacy

is violated, the objective being to undermine security,

propagate anarchy and topple regimes.

Therefore, combating terrorist groups requires

us to work together in three main areas. The first of

these is the security and military area, owing to the

worsening threat posed by these terrorist groups as they

acquire heavy weapons, enabling them to occupy cities

for use as safe havens and bases from which to launch

the terrorist operations that disrupt the stability and

security of our region.

We share a common responsibility with friendly

countries and our allies is to eradicate the terrorist group

of ISIL. To that end, our air force, in collaboration with

these countries, has targeted a number of ISIL positions.

We welcome Security Council resolution 2178 (2014),

adopted on 24 September, which focuses on stopping

the recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters. Also, we

continue to closely monitor borders and exit and entry

points so as to stop citizens of the Kingdom from

contacting or joining terrorist groups and to arrest and

prosecute all those who have allegedly been affiliated

to them as soon as they return to the country.

Secondly, we must combat all ideology that runs

counter to human nature and betrays true Islam by

distorting its precepts. Muslim clerics and scholars can

play an important part in counteracting such distortion.

We therefore call on all Muslim scholars to expose and

disown ideas that are not related to Islam in any way,

and we appreciate their playing a leading role in that

respect. It is imperative to stand together in the face of

the ideas propagated by the terrorist groups.

Thirdly, we must deal with financing, as it

constitutes the lifeline of the terrorist groups, enabling

them to perpetrate their barbaric acts, purchase

weapons and influence some young people. In that

connection, the Kingdom of Bahrain will convene

a high-level international conference during the

first week of November to consider the financing of

terrorism, how best to combat such financing and how

to deprive terrorism of its sources of finance. We firmly

believe that preventing the financing of terrorism will

significantly contribute to overcoming terrorism and to

eradicating it.

The second challenge to the security and stability of

our region is that of political expansionism and attempts

to impose hegemony, in disregard of the sovereignty

of States, and to interfere in their internal affairs. All

the countries of the region, without exception, have

suffered from such issues as a result of attempts to

export seditious revolutions and to train terrorists

in violation of international law and the principles

of the United Nations. Such attempts represent an

ideology that is archaic in its political dimension and

in its defiance of the values and principles enshrined in

numerous international instruments.

One form of such interference is the exploitation of

the media, in particular satellite television channels and

social media, which are misused in order to distort facts

and to cause instability in the region. We condemn such

illegal and illegitimate practices, which contravene

international values and principles.

I would like to point out what the Republic of

Yemen endures. With each step that it takes forward,

terrorist groups rush to pursue their criminal objectives

by undermining its stability and security. The Kingdom

of Bahrain reaffirms its support for President Abdrabuh

Mansour Hadi Mansour and his tireless efforts to

strengthen the national consensus achieved through a

comprehensive national dialogue on the basis of the

Gulf Cooperation Council initiative and the relevant

Security Council resolutions.

Turning to Iraq, which has suffered from flagrant

interference, insecurity, hegemony and anarchy, we see

some hope in the positive developments in the country.

We are pleased to welcome the election of President Fuad

Masum and the establishment of the new Government

under Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi. We hope

that such a development will enhance the political

and development processes, thereby contributing to

the consolidation of Iraq’s security and stability, the

preservation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity

and the strengthening of its links with its fellow Arabs

in the region where it naturally belongs.

The conflict in Syria becomes more complex and

more acute every year. Innocent civilians are paying

the ultimate price and losing their lives, property and

dignity. The humanitarian situation deteriorates daily

in the absence of a comprehensive political solution to

safeguard the lives of the Syrian people and to extricate

that beloved country from its protracted suffering

through a comprehensive political process aimed at

achieving reform and political plurality. With regard to

the humanitarian aspect, we reiterate that it is necessary

to overcome all impediments to the delivery of

humanitarian assistance to those in need, in accordance

with the relevant Security Council resolutions.

In that respect, I wish to express my country’s

great appreciation for the humanity shown by the

sisterly Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in hosting

and delivering assistance to Syrian refugees. We also

appreciate the humanitarian role played by Turkey and

Lebanon, as well as by the Office of the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees.

With regard to the Arab Republic of Egypt,

the Kingdom of Bahrain welcomes the democratic

development that has taken place in that country

and the implementation of the road map through the

establishment of a Constitution that reflects the will of

the Egyptian people. We also welcome the presidential

elections and the ongoing preparations for the holding

of legislative elections so as to complete the State

institutions under the Constitution.

The Kingdom of Bahrain reiterates its complete

condemnation of any interference in the internal affairs

of Egypt. We support the efforts of President Abdel

Fattah Al Sisi and the steps that he has taken to combat

terrorism, to preserve the security and stability of

Egypt and to pursue its strategic and active role at the

Arab, regional and international levels. In that regard,

I would like to commend the initiative taken by the

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah

Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, King of the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia, in announcing the convening of an Egyptian

economic summit in support of Egypt and its economic

development.

We reiterate the historical, principled and constant

position of the Kingdom of Bahrain in solidarity with

the Kingdom of Morocco and our full support for its

initiatives with regard to self-government for the

Moroccan Sahara within Moroccan sovereignty and

territorial integrity, in accordance with international

legitimacy.

With regard to Libya, the Kingdom of Bahrain

wishes to express its grave concern about the

deteriorating security situation as a result of the

violent acts perpetrated by terrorist groups and

the repercussions of such acts on the stability of

neighbouring countries. The Kingdom of Bahrain

supports the legitimate constitutional institutions

represented by the elected House of Representatives

and welcomes the establishment of the new Government

under Mr. Abdallah Al-Thani. We hope that such a

development will help to establish security and stability

and to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of that

sisterly country.

In view of our keen interest in striving to achieve

our principal goal, namely, to protect humankind

from the scourge of war, conflict and disaster and to

condemn attempts at hegemony and destabilization, we

reiterate our call to make the Middle East, including

the Arab Gulf region, a zone free of weapons of mass

destruction, in particular nuclear weapons. On the basis

of that principle, we support the efforts of the P5+1

to promptly find a solution to the issue of the Iranian

nuclear programme, in accordance with the provisions

of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons and the Convention on Nuclear Safety, without

prejudice to the use of nuclear technology for peaceful

purposes. Such use is a natural right of all States under

the international safeguards system.

The third and last challenge is the illegal occupation

of the territory of other States in breach of the principles

of international law and the Charter of the United

Nations, as demonstrated by Israel’s violation of all

international laws, agreements and decisions and its

targeting of the Palestinian people by confiscating their

land, by building or expanding settlements thereon and

by imposing blockades on them. Such violations found

their ugliest expression in the most recent criminal

aggression against the Gaza Strip, which resulted in

tremendous damage and caused the death of more than

2,000 martyrs, the displacement of a great number of

Palestinians and the destruction of infrastructure.

I would like to recall the words of

President Mahmoud Abbas in his statement before

the General Assembly, his request that international

protection be provided to the Palestinian people and

their territories under occupation and his demand that

Israel abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949

(see A/69/PV.12). It is imperative to have a specific

time frame for an end to the Israeli occupation and to

achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people for the

establishment of an independent Palestinian State on

all its territory within the boundaries of 4 June 1967,

with East Jerusalem as its capital, as stipulated under

the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-State solution,

in accordance with international legitimacy and the

relevant United Nations resolutions.

In that context, we commend the pivotal role

played by the Arab Republic of Egypt in order to

reach a ceasefire in Gaza. We greatly appreciate its

hosting, in cooperation with the Kingdom of Norway,

an international conference in support of Palestine and

the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip next month. We

also commend the important role of the United Nations

Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the

Near East.

With regard to the occupation by the Islamic

Republic of Iran of the three islands Greater Tunb,

Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, which belong to the United

Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain reiterates its

consistent position condemning that occupation. We

call on Iran to heed the efforts of the United Arab

Emirates to resolve the issue through direct negotiations

or through the arbitration of the International Court of

Justice.

Those are the key challenges facing our region.

If we overcome them, it will be relatively easy for us,

within our common responsibilities, to address the

international challenges that the Secretary-General

described in his statement, to which I referred at the

beginning of my statement. If we focus on those very

serious issues, we will be on the right path towards true

sustainable development and the necessary reform to

meet the aspirations of all peoples.

Notwithstanding the challenges that we all face, the

Kingdom of Bahrain will always remain committed to

moving forward on the path of development, reform and

positive interaction with the international community

in order to achieve our aspirations and objectives. In

that respect, the Kingdom of Bahrain, in line with its

firm approach towards reform under the leadership

of His Majesty the King, will continue to work for

the upholding of the rule of law, pluralism and active

political participation. We look forward to the elections

to be held on 22 November, so as to consolidate all our

achievements.

In conclusion, I would like to underscore the

fact that in the Kingdom of Bahrain our choices are

clear. Our vision is comprehensive and our strategy

complementary to and in line with our Gulf, Arab and

international contexts. The Kingdom always seeks to

promote stability, peace, security, development and the

protection of human rights. It rejects and condemns

terrorism, violence and hatred and works for a society

in which harmony and consensus prevail for the benefit

of all and for the establishment of a promising future

full of opportunity and achievement for all future

generations.