United Arab Emirates, 1998

I have the

honour to extend to the President the congratulations of the

delegation of the United Arab Emirates on his election to

the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-third

session. We are confident that his wise leadership and vast

diplomatic experience in international affairs will contribute

to strengthening the role of the Organization in the world

today.

I also wish to pay tribute to his predecessor,

Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, Minister for Foreign Affairs of

Ukraine, for the distinguished manner in which he directed

the work of the previous session. We also wish to express

our deep appreciation to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, for his endeavours to maintain peace, security and

stability in the world.

As we stand at the threshold of a new millennium, the

international community is witnessing radical changes in

international relations, the implications of which are

reflected in the lives of peoples. The various aspects of

openness and globalization embodied in some of those

changes have not been comprehensive in their positive

aspects, but have resulted in widely divergent levels of

economic and social development among States and have

promoted the emergence of new patterns of problems that

require radical joint international solutions to contain and

deal with them.

There is now an increased awareness in the world of

the inevitability of renewing and developing the United

Nations as the essential international tool for dealing with

current world problems and achieving balance, transparency

and justice in international relations.

Consequently, we support the positions of the Non-

Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 regarding these

vital issues, particularly the questions within the purview

of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social

Council, and the reform of the Security Council and

enlargement of its membership. We also call for

strengthening coordination, cooperation and dialogue

between the United Nations and regional organizations in

order to mobilize and complement joint international

efforts to deal with many issues on the agenda.

The world has seen positive efforts in the area of

international law, the most important of which were

reflected in the conclusion of a number of international

conventions. The latest of these efforts was the

establishment in Rome of an International Criminal Court,

which we regard as an important step that will contribute

to supporting the principles of human rights worldwide.

We also call for reactivating the role of the International

Court of Justice, which is the essential legal instrument

for settling disputes between States.

Political events in the world, and particularly in the

Arab Gulf region, have proved that radical solutions to

regional disputes can only be achieved through peaceful

means and methods based on the principles of the Charter

of the United Nations and international law. Proceeding

from this belief, and true to those principles, the United

Arab Emirates has adopted a wise policy in its quest for

a peaceful solution to the question of the occupation by

the Islamic Republic of Iran of its three islands —

Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa — which form

an integral part of our national sovereignty and territorial

integrity.

The continued consolidation by Iran of its illegal

occupation of those islands and the imposition of a policy

of fait accompli through numerous military and civilian

measures designed to change their historical, demographic

and legal characteristics are a source of grave tension and

concern in the region. This runs counter to good-

neighbourly relations, peaceful coexistence and

confidence-building, as well as to the Charters of both the

United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic

Conference. Such actions are also incompatible with the

approaches taken by the members of the Gulf Cooperation

Council, which call for the settlement of existing disputes

by peaceful means in order to achieve permanent security

and stability in the region and strengthen relations and

common interests between the States members of the Gulf

Cooperation Council and Iran.

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Accordingly, once again from this rostrum we appeal

to the Government of friendly Iran to demonstrate a serious

political will and accept our genuinely peaceful initiative,

supported by all fraternal and friendly States, either to

engage with us in dialogue and enter into bilateral

negotiations that would address the legal and historical

background of this question, not just its formalities, or

accept resort to the International Court of Justice with a

view to reaching a just and permanent settlement conducive

to terminating the Iranian occupation of our three islands.

Once again we reaffirm that our call for solving this dispute

peacefully emanates from the nature of our historical

relations with Iran and proceeds from our commitment to

the essential principles governing international relations.

This is also in the interest of preserving peace, security and

stability in our region and throughout the world.

The United Arab Emirates renews its support for all

peaceful efforts and endeavours by the Secretary-General of

the United Nations towards resumption of the activities of

the Special Commission in Iraq. But we consider it

necessary, in order to avoid any further escalation or

renewed tensions in the region, and in the light of the

importance of preserving the sovereignty and territorial

integrity of Iraq and non-interference in its international

affairs, to continue upgrading the food-for-oil programme

and improving its operation in order to meet the

humanitarian needs of the fraternal Iraqi people and to

alleviate its ceaseless suffering. At the same time, we urge

the Iraqi Government to fully implement all the relevant

resolutions of international legitimacy particularly those

relating to the release of the prisoners of war and detainees,

citizens of sisterly Kuwait and other States, and to complete

the restitution of Kuwaiti property so as to ensure the lifting

of the sanctions imposed on Iraq and to enable it to resume

its natural role at the regional and international levels.

The Middle East peace process is at a dangerous

stalemate on all its tracks as a result of the adoption by the

Israeli Government of a policy of gradual recanting on all

the obligations and undertakings it has assumed under this

process. The most dangerous aspect of that policy is that

Government’s resolve to proceed with implementing its

plans for building more Jewish settlements in the occupied

Palestinian and other Arab territories, particularly in the city

of Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan. It daily perpetrates

atrocious and inhuman crimes against the Palestinian and

other Arab peoples, which constitutes a flagrant violation of

the basic principles on which that process and the Fourth

Geneva Convention of 1949 are based.

Aware of the danger inherent in the continuation of

these illegal Israeli acts, we believe there is a need for

effective action by the international community — in

particular, the co-sponsors of the peace process and the

European Union — to bring additional pressure to bear on

Israel to force it to comply with its legal obligations and

to demand that it resume the negotiations, without

preconditions, on the different tracks of the peace process,

on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967)

and 338 (1973) and the principle of land for peace. We

also express our unceasing support for the Palestinian

people in their quest for self-determination and their

legitimate aspiration to establish their independent State

on their national soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Similarly, we support the position of the Government of

Lebanon, demanding that Israel implement fully Security

Council resolution 425 (1978), which calls on Israel to

end unconditionally its military occupation of the south of

Lebanon and its western Bekaa valley without condition.

The establishment of a zone free of all kinds of

weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and Arab

Gulf regions is a requirement that complements the peace

process and represents an essential factor in the security

and stability of those regions. Accordingly, the

international community should demand that the

Government of Israel accede to the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and subject its

nuclear installations to the control and safeguards regime

of the International Atomic Energy Agency. International

measures which so far have been achieved in the area of

world disarmament have not been global in their

coverage, especially since we are witnessing an arms race

and testing of nuclear and other proscribed weapons. Such

developments will not lead to the settlement of existing

disputes between States, but, rather, to an imbalance in

regional security, as is the case between India and

Pakistan and in other regions.

We therefore urge both friendly countries to exercise

self-restraint, renounce the use of force and resume

dialogue and negotiations with a view to reducing

tensions and solving their current disputes peacefully in

a manner that will serve the interests of security and

stability in that region. We also call upon the nuclear-

weapon States, and those in possession of such dangerous

weapons, to reconsider their policies, to refrain from

applying double standards and to promote the adoption of

equal measures for confidence-building among States.

Serious steps must be taken by the United Nations to deal

with this shortcoming in a way that contributes to the

creation of a peaceful and stable world free from tension

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and from the threat or use of such prohibited weapons and

their damaging effects on humanity.

While we appreciate the efforts of the United Nations

peacekeeping forces, in cooperation with the regional

organizations, to deal with and contain conflicts and civil

and regional wars in certain parts of the world, we are still

concerned about the failure to contain several crises in

other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, Somalia, the

Great Lakes region, Angola and other hotbeds of tension.

Recent examples are the situations between Ethiopia and

Eritrea and between Iran and Afghanistan, as well as that

in Kosovo, where the human rights of Muslims are being

flagrantly violated by the Yugoslav Serb forces, whose

actions we strongly condemn as contradicting legally

binding international norms and principles. The United

Nations, and the Security Council in particular, must

assume their responsibilities in putting an end to such

conflicts and violations and should promote the

participation of regional organizations in finding adequate

peaceful solutions to those problems. We also call upon the

parties concerned to cooperate in such efforts by

demonstrating the political will necessary to settle their

disputes by peaceful means.

The United Arab Emirates strongly condemns the

terrorist acts that were carried out recently in some African

States, resulting in heavy losses of lives and property. On

the basis of ethical and humanitarian responsibility, the

international community should intensify its efforts to

protect civilians and their rights and to confront the

phenomenon of terrorism, regardless of its origin or form.

However, combating this dangerous phenomenon should not

be carried out on a unilateral basis or through

indiscriminate military revenge, which destroys lives and

property, but through joint international action within the

framework of the United Nations in order to ensure the

elimination of all the root causes and manifestations of

terrorism and thereby preserve the security and stability of

societies and the territorial integrity of States.

The world economic and financial environment

continues to undergo numerous challenges which have

varying implications for development. Despite the

liberalization of trade, the open markets and the

globalization of the economy that have characterized

international relations, developing countries, representing a

majority of the population of this planet, are still facing a

multitude of problems especially together with the

exacerbation of unemployment, illiteracy and poverty, in

addition to debts and the cost of servicing them, declining

humanitarian and development assistance which have

become a heavy burden on many of those States,

particularly the least developed countries. As a result,

their development problems have increased, and that in

turn has led to the creation of a state of instability and

social disintegration.

Recent economic and financial crises in South-East

Asia and other regions not only pose challenges to

sustainable development, but also demonstrate that there

are clear imbalances in the world monetary, economic and

trade systems. Therefore, we call for the development of

global economic and financial strategies to remedy the

real causes of this phenomenon in order to achieve

stability in the world financial, economic and trade

systems. This will also require the reform of international

development and financial institutions to enable them to

adapt to the changing economic situation in the world and

effectively contribute to addressing many of those

problems. That in turn will require the initiation of

comprehensive and objective North-South dialogue, which

should lead to the fulfilment of the goals shared by both

the developing and developed countries.

In conclusion, I hope that the deliberations of the

Assembly at this session will succeed in reaching positive

resolutions that address our concerns as they are reflected

on the agenda for this session for the benefit, prosperity,

security and stability of our States and peoples.