Lebanon, 2006

Today, I am honoured as I

congratulate you, Madam President, on your election

as the first Arab woman to ever preside over this body,

hoping that this heralds a new era of better

understanding of women’s aspirations and Arab causes.

I would also like to thank the Secretary-General,

Mr. Kofi Annan, for all that he has done for Lebanon

and for the cause of peace in the region and the world

as a whole.

I stand before the Assembly representing a

terribly scarred country, a country whose ordeal is well

known to members — my ravaged country, Lebanon.

From 12 July through 14 August, my country was

subjected to a barbarous aggression and to a rarely seen

campaign of savage dismemberment, when hundreds of

fighter jets emptied their loads of heavy and banned

bombs, targeting mostly civilians, killing and maiming

thousands, and destroying everything that made

Lebanon a viable State. Obviously, this was a

premeditated Israeli “sentence” to destroy my country

and everything it stood for, it having been blessed and

termed by His Holiness Pope John Paul II a “unique

message to humanity,” that we can live together. This

aggression became even more cruel when it won the

tacit approbation of certain great powers.

Regrettably, the Security Council looked

powerless in its attempts to stop the slaughter of

Lebanon’s children and protect the peace in Lebanon

and the Middle East. It took over a month and

numerous calls for an immediate ceasefire for all those

concerned to finally force a mere cessation of

hostilities, which is yet to become a formal and final

ceasefire.

It becomes self-evident for us to question the

credibility of the United Nations in light of the

Secretary-General’s acknowledgment that the delays in

adopting Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) did

indeed harm its credibility. Moreover, we cannot but

have serious doubts as to this Organization’s ability to

safeguard world peace when its resolutions are

subjected to the vagaries of a very few world powers.

Today I ask: How many children, like the one in

the photograph that I am holding up, will die because

nobody does anything for them? How many children

was this evil, vengeful machine of destruction

supposed to have killed, before the world community

decided to respond in defence of a “rightful” cause?

Allow us to ask these questions, as we are filled with a

deep sense of grief, when scores of our fallen citizens

are still beneath the rubble.

Let me reassure the Assembly that this savagery

did not weaken our people’s resolve nor shake its

resilience as it rallied around its army and Government

and embraced its national resistance, whose men faced

occupation forces with epic valour, preventing their

advance, and presenting Lebanon with yet another

victory, in the name of justice and dignity.

While we stand under the United Nations

umbrella to warn the world of the dire consequences

we shall all face when the very foundations of this

world body are shaken, it is also time to ask Israel,

which owes its very existence to a United Nations

resolution, to finally abide by past and recent

resolutions.

As of 14 August this year, Lebanon has once

again, without a shadow of a doubt, reasserted the fact

that it is a nation that respects its commitments, while

it implements international resolutions and proceeds to

deploy 15,000 Lebanese army soldiers on the border

between Lebanon and Israel — while Israel continues

its daily breaches of Security Council resolution 1701

(2006), having imposed a humiliating siege on

Lebanon, and refusing to withdraw from the Lebanese

territory in the Shaba’a farms sector, whose liberation

remains Lebanon’s sacred right and duty. To this day,

Israel continues to treat the people of Lebanon as

hostages, kidnapping at will scores of its citizens, in a

flagrant breach of that resolution.

Finally, Israel refuses to surrender to the United

Nations the maps showing thousands of mines it left

behind on Lebanese territory, while the case and fate of

Lebanon’s prisoners in Israel remains very ambiguous,

and no clear resolution of their ordeal is addressed

anywhere.

Today, for the sake of peace, the world

community is called upon to save Security Council

resolution 1701 (2006) from oblivion, a fate that

characterized scores of previous resolutions.

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Here, on behalf of a grateful country, I solemnly

salute the fallen soldiers of peace who will hence share

their obituary with that of our brave army soldiers and

of our valiant resistance fighters, victims of prohibited

weaponry, first tested by Israel on our soil and subject

to an international investigation. We are hopeful that

this time the world community will allow the

investigation to reach its natural conclusion. This will

constitute a clear indictment of Israel for its recurring

violations of international conventions and the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We also hope that the United States will not

resort to its unfailing veto, thus allowing for the

indictment of Israel’s actions in sympathy for the

thousands of innocent civilians who were killed and

maimed by the “smart”, cluster and phosphorus bombs,

and those laced with depleted uranium.

Inspired by the principles and treaties of the

United Nations, Lebanon retains the right of action to

prosecute Israel before the competent bodies, most

notably this Assembly, or the International Criminal

Court, and to request the appropriate reparations for all

the catastrophes Israel has inflicted on Lebanon.

I ask the Assembly today to stand by my country,

as that will be recorded as a just and rightful stance. I

also call upon it to differentiate between he who

defends his country against Israeli aggression and

occupation, and who strives to liberate his countrymen

from decades of unlawful imprisonment, and those

elements that perpetrate acts of wanton slaughter

against their countrymen and others equally. I remind

the Assembly that Lebanon’s experience with the

scourge of terror goes back a long way, and has taken a

very heavy toll on its armed forces.

The most recent aggression against Lebanon has

left this small country terribly scarred, afflicted with

thousands of dead and wounded, and a toll of

destruction including several thousand housing units

and hundreds of bridges, ports, airports and factories.

And my message is: the will of our people to live and

move forward has proved to be much stronger than

defeat and despair. In record time, the people of

Lebanon launched a campaign of reconstruction, made

even more successful by instant comforting gestures of

goodwill from many friends, at home and abroad. With

such overwhelming support and assistance Lebanon

will beat all the odds by achieving a stellar rebirth,

thereby scoring another point in favour of humanity.

There is ample talk today of the need to reach a

permanent and comprehensive peace in the Middle

East, which Lebanon has stressed for decades.

However, we are quick to point out that no such peace

can be achieved in the Middle East without addressing

the root cause of instability there, namely, the Arab-

Israeli dispute and its core issue, Palestine.

Despite the horrid events in Lebanon, a window

of opportunity has presented itself, and it should be

fully exploited in order to reinvigorate the Middle East

peace initiative, founded on the Arab peace initiative

adopted during the Beirut Arab Summit of 2002.

The Arab peace initiative remains the suitable

means to achieve a permanent, comprehensive and just

peace, because it simply calls for the implementation

of all United Nations resolutions as they pertain to the

withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab lands, and

for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

Only such a settlement will be capable of affording

Lebanon and the neighbouring countries the stability

and security they long for and will give Israel a sense

of security — something it has failed to obtain through

sheer force and aggression. Moreover, this should put

an end to the haemorrhage in the Palestinian territories

and foster moderation where despair has bred

extremism and violence, most notably in Iraq, where it

is vital for all of us to help that tortured Arab nation

preserve its territorial integrity and the unity of its

people.

Today there is incessant talk of a new Middle

East as a harbinger of better things to come, and this

prompts us to ask the following question. Is what we

have witnessed in Lebanon and continue to see in

Palestine and Iraq conducive to an environment of

peace and tranquillity? Is this much heralded new

Middle East attainable only through widespread strife,

unimaginable bloodshed, sedition and oppression?

Our conception of a new Middle East is one that

is coherent with United Nations resolutions, and that is

in concurrence with the principles of justice and right

as stipulated in those resolutions. Our idea of a new

Middle East is one where a comprehensive peace

settlement becomes reality, guaranteeing the rights of

all; where Palestinian refugees return home, as

stipulated in resolution 194 (III), which comes long

before Security Council resolution 1701 (2006), and

therefore are not resettled in host countries; and where

prisoners return to their loved ones.

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This is the only way to attain a stable Middle

East. All else will plunge our region into further

upheaval and bloodshed.

Should our conception of peace in the Middle

East become reality, I assure the Assembly that the

need for conferences, studies and discussions of

terrorism will become moot. Should this happen in

tandem with serious attempts to combat poverty and

sustain acceptable levels of development in areas of

need, this will certainly dry up the pools where

terrorism draws its human and financial support.

I have recently read one of your statements,

Madam President, in which you emphasize that

overhauling the United Nations will be one of your top

priorities. I commend you for that position, because no

one appreciates the need for world peace more than the

people of the Middle East, as we recognize that the

preservation of world peace requires a United Nations

capable of taking decisions and competent to see them

through.

Here, I would like to reiterate what I said from

this very rostrum only last year:

“The core values of a democratic and just world

are best served by enhancing the capabilities of

the United Nations and its instruments, and by

reinforcing in-house democratic values.”

(A/60/PV.13, p.1)

I believed that this institution should remain a

sanctuary of world consciousness and “the primary

defender of such human values as freedom, justice and

peace.” (ibid)

Perhaps the reforms that have been carried out so

far, such as the establishment of a Human Rights

Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, will

constitute the necessary incentives for achieving a

United Nations capable of safeguarding right and

justice.

Taking into consideration current trends in world

affairs, I propose to the General Assembly the creation

of a commission leading to laying the foundations of a

charter of the rights of nations, a charter equal in

importance to the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, a charter imposing on Member States — all

States — a code of conduct founded on the principles

of justice and the rule of law.

I come here from a country riddled with scars,

rising from the rubble and ashes of aggression, to

speak of justice. I do not pretend to pontificate from

the helm of a tank. Lebanon remains a peace-loving

nation, and it extends its hand to all those who share its

peaceful vision, founded on a just settlement and

extracting as such the seeds of oppression and

violence. We trust that the forces of good will prevail

in the end, because its flames burn in the heart of the

righteous and because the sounds of jubilation will

undoubtedly prevail over the beating of war drums and

the sibilating of hate and violence.