Qatar, 2007

At the outset,

I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election

to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-

second session. I wish you every success in your

mission. I would like also to thank your predecessor,

Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for successfully

presiding over the previous session.

I would like further to pay tribute to Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon, who has assumed his post at a

critical moment in which the Organization is facing

several serious challenges that threaten international

peace and security.

The current session has begun at a time when

more than one fifth of the world’s population of

Muslims are observing mandatory fasting during the

month of Ramadan. We were eager to participate in the

activities of this session being held in this holy month

in order to stress our conviction in the need to

contribute to promoting coexistence among nations and

to raise an important issue related to the purposes of

the international community with respect to the future

of peace and progress.

Given its great significance, I would like to refer

to Security Council resolution 1770 (2007), on the

subject of Iraq, which was adopted on 10 August 2007.

That resolution has partly restored to the United

Nations its rightful role in addressing Iraq’s tragedy,

after it was proven that it is no longer possible for that

matter to remain confined to a single State or to a

coalition of States of converging interests.

The world’s major conflicts have become far too

big for a single Power to handle them on its own.

Responsibility for addressing them should therefore be

placed with the United Nations, as it constitutes the

political embodiment of the international community’s

principles, laws and broad aspirations to peacebuilding

and to achieving progress on the basis of the rule of

law and the will of those upholding its authority. If the

role of the United Nations is to be more effective, its

structure must be reformed to adapt to the changes that

have taken place in the world since the adoption of the

Charter of the United Nations, in 1945.

While the current situation in Iraq requires that

the international community assume its

responsibilities, the main responsibility remains with

the leaders of the whole Iraqi people, who are

primarily responsible for hammering out a formula of

national reconciliation that ensures justice, peace and

security and preserves the sovereignty and territorial

integrity of Iraq.

The international order has witnessed both “cold”

and actual wars. Although real wars are humanly

unacceptable, cold wars are psychologically unbearable

because they inevitably lead to proxy conflicts, which

are incompatible with a world in which the forces of

enlightenment and the elements of understanding

among nations and cultures have strived in an

unprecedented manner.

The work of the United Nations in the areas of

development should be accorded high priority, given

the close links that exist between development,

security and peace. We were indeed pleased that the

General Assembly approved the initiative of the State

of Qatar to host the first follow-up conference to the

International Conference on Financing for

Development, which is to be held at Doha during the

second half of 2008.

One of the major challenges that we all have to

address pertains to the protection of the environment.

In addition to the destructive effects of climate change,

the environment is subject to degradation and

pollution, which threaten human life as well as that of

all living creatures. Such a situation requires both our

cooperation and concerted efforts by industrialized and

developing countries alike to find new approaches and

visions leading to effective short-, mid- and long-term

solutions. In that connection, I would like to

underscore my country’s support for any measures

aimed at protecting the environment and achieving

sustainable development.

International aid is one of the areas for promoting

international partnership. The volume of aid should

therefore be increased and its efficiency improved by

easing the conditions on which it is granted so as to

promote the national development strategies of

recipient countries. In that regard, we are concerned

about the decline in 2006 of the real value of official

development assistance. Donors should make

additional efforts to double the assistance provided to

sub-Saharan African countries and to promote the

development agenda of the United Nations.

Moreover, given the important, major role played

by global trade in financing development, a successful

conclusion to the Doha Round would provide new

opportunities to promote multilateral trade

transactions. While we are concerned about the

deadlock in the ongoing consultations on the

implementation of the Doha Development Agenda, we

hope that we will be able to put that phase behind us.

We also hope that all parties concerned, especially

developed countries, will show the sufficient flexibility

to reach mutually beneficial, practical results.

I have not come to this session to present issues

or crises related to my country or the Arab world,

although some of them have reached proportions

constituting human tragedies. I have come here to raise

broader issues, as I am convinced that all Arab and

Muslim issues are related to the problems of the world

as a whole. In the light of a global understanding of the

new phase in international progress an

understanding that emphasizes the belief in the need to

resort to the collective international will, as embodied

by the United Nations, its leadership and system, and

in the set of principles on which the Organization’s

Charter is based Arab and Muslim causes would not

be the only ones to benefit from it; it would also

benefit the entire world. Just causes are always

protected by the principles of the law, and the law

provides their true guarantee, as well as powerful

support.