Morocco, 2005

I

should like to begin by congratulating Ambassador Jan

Eliasson, on behalf of the delegation of Morocco, on

his election to the presidency of the General Assembly

at this historic session and by wishing him success in

his noble task. I should also like to express to his

predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, Foreign

Minister of the brotherly State of Gabon, our sincere

thanks and profound appreciation for his efforts as

President of the General Assembly during the fifty-

ninth session and for the patience and dedication that

he showed in his excellent conduct of the preparatory

work for the High-level Plenary Meeting, thereby

ensuring the success of the summit, which marked the

sixtieth anniversary of our Organization.

I should also like to pay tribute to the

Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for his commendable

efforts to improve the structure of the Organization and

enhance its working methods and effectiveness.

Last week’s summit meeting was a key event in

the history of the United Nations and marked a turning

point in the Organization’s activities, not just because

of the impressive number of very distinguished

participants, but also because of the importance of the

outcome document (resolution 60/1), which was

adopted as a result of the contribution of all members.

In this regard, the Kingdom of Morocco supports

the proposals submitted by the Secretary-General with

a view to ensuring follow-up of the outcomes of the

various international conferences on development

issues. Although it failed to meet our expectations, the

summit outcome document nevertheless reiterated our

international commitments; it paves the way for

strengthening the role and effectiveness of the

Organization and adapting it to meet the new

challenges posed by global developments.

The Kingdom of Morocco would like to reaffirm

its readiness to contribute to the implementation of the

recommendations of the summit and to participate in

the international effort to achieve the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs). My country has

undertaken a number of proactive national initiatives

relating to ensuring respect for human rights and the

establishment of an integrated and modern society in

which women play an active role in development.

Many of these are set out in the National Initiative for

Human Development, announced by His Majesty King

Mohammed VI on 18 May. That initiative reflects

Morocco’s willingness to create a development model

based on a successful association of modernity,

democratization and economic openness. That model is

also aimed at achieving a sustained improvement in our

human development index, within a spirit of collective

participation, solidarity, equal opportunity, the

dissemination of knowledge and the provision of basic

social services.

The end of the era of ideological division and the

rise of a new world order has called the attention of the

international community to new challenges posed by

the scourges of terrorism, hunger, poverty,

backwardness, illiteracy and pandemic disease, as well

as the increasing number of refugees fleeing from the

disasters of war and destruction and the growing

number of ethnic, tribal and religious conflicts and

separatist trends.

Since the events of 11 September 2001, the

international community has grown increasingly aware

of the threat of terrorism and of the need to combat it

by all available means and to address its root causes

and underlying motives.

The Kingdom of Morocco, which has itself been

subjected to the scourge of terrorism, has participated

4

in efforts to combat it through the elaboration of legal

instruments and practical arrangements at the national,

regional and international levels. During this session,

the Kingdom of Morocco will continue to contribute to

efforts to adopt a comprehensive convention against

terrorism, thereby complementing its participation in

the elaboration of the International Convention for the

Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.

As for development challenges, our African

continent is the only region that will not be able to

achieve the MDGs within the specified time frame

unless the international community provides full

support. In this regard, African countries acknowledge

that they must rely, first and foremost, on their own

human and material resources. However, Africa’s

economic take-off can be achieved only through an

efficient and realistic partnership involving all the

parties concerned, including donor countries and

international and regional organizations. That

partnership must be founded on an integrated and

sustained process that benefits the existing North-

South and South-South cooperation mechanisms.

Convinced of the necessity to collectively combat

the ills that are besetting our African continent,

Morocco has always taken the lead in supporting and

encouraging any initiative aimed at freeing the African

peoples from their stark predicament. Thus, on more

than one occasion, the Kingdom of Morocco has

voiced full support for the New Partnership for

Africa’s Development as an integrated and

comprehensive action plan designed to solve the

persistent economic and social problems that have

plagued our continent since the era of independence.

On the other hand, Morocco has always shown its

readiness to contribute to conflict resolution in Africa

by bringing together belligerent parties and by

strengthening the ties of brotherhood and good

neighbourliness among the States of western Africa, as

well as through the participation of the Royal Armed

Forces of Morocco in peacekeeping operations

conducted under the auspices of the United Nations in

Africa.

The Kingdom of Morocco welcomes the decision

by the Group of Eight to cancel the debt of least

developed African countries. I would also like to recall

that His Majesty King Mohammed VI was among the

first to initiate such a move. During the first European

Union-Africa Summit, which was held in Cairo, His

Majesty announced the cancellation of the debt of least

developed African countries, opened Morocco’s market

to their products and granted them customs

exemptions.

The success of Africa’s economic take-off

remains contingent upon the success of regional

integration throughout the continent. The Kingdom of

Morocco therefore believes that the reactivation of the

Maghreb Arab Union is a political imperative, an

economic necessity and a historical reality that

responds to the aspirations of the peoples of the region

and reflects the expectations of our partners, especially

those in the Mediterranean region, with whom we are

striving to reinforce our partnership as we prepare to

celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Barcelona

process.

For those reasons, Morocco is working to

reactivate the Union’s machinery and to remove any

obstacles that might hinder its relaunching on a sound,

constructive and meaningful basis. In this context,

Morocco would like to reaffirm its steadfast

commitment to working closely with the Secretary-

General and his Personal Envoy and Special

Representative, as well as with all parties concerned, in

order to break the current stalemate and reach a

negotiated political solution to the artificial conflict

with respect to the Moroccan Sahara. Because of its

geostrategic nature, that conflict between two brotherly

neighbouring countries, Morocco and Algeria, requires

the involvement of our brethren in Algeria in a serious

and constructive dialogue with a view to putting an end

to it once and for all.

His Majesty King Mohammed VI, in his most

recent Throne Day speech, affirmed Morocco’s

willingness “to engage in serious negotiations with a

view to reaching a final solution that would win United

Nations support and grant the inhabitants of the

southern provinces autonomy within the sovereignty of

the Kingdom and its territorial and national integrity”.

Pending the involvement of all parties in that

negotiation process, it remains urgent to follow up on

the humanitarian aspect of the problem by disclosing

the fate of all Moroccan missing persons and prisoners.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was

unable to establish contacts with those persons or to

discover their place of detention. In addition, the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees should be allowed to undertake a fair and

5

free census of Moroccan citizens being held in the

Tindouf camps in Algeria, who should be freed and

allowed to exercise their right to return to their

homeland.

The Arab region, which continues to experience

recurrent crises as well as new ones equally violent and

fierce, looks to the Organization and to other

international and regional actors for their assistance in

solving them. In that regard, we hope that the ray of

optimism that shone recently in the Middle East,

prompting us to engage in cautious optimism, will be

supported by serious and brave measures that will

revive the peace process and put it back on track. The

Kingdom of Morocco welcomed the withdrawal from

the Gaza Strip and considers it an important and

positive decision on the path towards full

implementation of the road map.

Morocco, which has always striven tirelessly and

effectively to keep open the channels of

communication and dialogue among the peoples of the

Middle East, reaffirms its active commitment to

promoting a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli

conflict that will lead to the establishment of a final,

lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East

through the reactivation of the road map, the

guaranteed establishment of a free Palestinian State

with Al-Quds as its capital, and the withdrawal of

Israel from the occupied Syrian and Lebanese

territories.

His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Chairman of

the Al-Quds Committee, has reaffirmed his resolve to

continue to actively pursue and support all peace

efforts and to work to preserve the Arab and Islamic

identity of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and its status as a place

of coexistence and tolerance among the three revealed

religions.

With regard to the situation in the brotherly State

of Iraq, the Kingdom of Morocco, although

appreciating highly the continuous and intensive

efforts to re-establish stability, peace and

reconstruction in Iraq, and although following the

recent political progress with great interest, affirms

that the participation of all constituents of Iraqi society

is needed to build the democratic institutions of the

new Iraqi State and to preserve its national unity.

Moreover, the international community must help the

Iraqi people to overcome the ongoing crisis by creating

the conditions necessary for peace and stability.

Reforming the United Nations to enable it to meet

the challenges of the twenty-first century, restructuring

its organs and bodies and updating their mandates will

require not only that its working methods be improved,

but also that the Organization regain its natural and

leading role as a framework for constructive dialogue

and as a forum for creative interaction among the

various intellectual currents and religious and cultural

trends.

In that context, Morocco commends the

Secretary-General for his decision to appoint a High-

level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations and to

establish a new cultural world order based on tolerance

and coexistence. We support diversity and unity of

visions and goals as contributions to meeting the

challenges of the new millennium.