United Arab Emirates, 2001

At the outset, I wish to express how deeply

saddened we are over the crash of the American

Airlines aircraft a few hours ago, a few miles away

from this Headquarters, in the borough of Queens in

New York City. Let me express our deep condolences

to the families of the victims and to our friends in this

country.

I have the honour to convey to Mr. Han Seung-

soo, on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, our sincere

congratulations on his election to the presidency of the

General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session. His

election to this high office shows the high regard the

international community has for him personally as well

as for his friendly country, South Korea, with which

my country maintains good relations. We are confident

that thanks to his experience in international affairs the

Assembly will achieve positive results, and we wish

him and his staff every success.

Let me also extend my thanks to his predecessor,

Mr. Harri Holkeri, for the valuable efforts he exerted in

conducting the work of the previous session.

I should also like to take this opportunity to

congratulate Secretary-General Kofi Annan on his re-

election for a second term to this high office and on

being awarded, together with the United Nations

Organization, the Nobel Peace Prize. We would like to

convey to him our appreciation for his persistent

efforts, which are bound to contribute to enabling the

Organization to accomplish its lofty mission of

maintaining international peace and security and

achieving sustainable international development.

This session is being held at a very critical stage,

when the United States of America has been subjected

to the most horrific and dangerous forms of organized

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terrorism that not only targeted the lives of thousands

of innocent civilian men, women and children, but also

the moral codes and values underlying the human and

cultural principles that are enshrined in the Charter, the

norms of international law and the foundations and

concepts of the legal, political, economic and social

institutions that shape the nature of our international

relations as a whole.

The United Arab Emirates, which was deeply

shocked after this reprehensible, immoral and criminal

act, reiterates today its strong denunciation and

condemnation of these savage acts and all other forms

of terrorism, wherever they may be. They constitute the

clearest challenges to international peace and security

in the twenty-first century. We also announce our

complete support for and cooperation with the United

States Government as well as all the regional and

international efforts aimed at tracking down the

perpetrators of these brutal acts, bringing them to

justice. We also stress our readiness to contribute to

any international campaign aimed at eliminating

terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. At the

same time, we call upon the international community to

strengthen the mechanisms and scope of relief aid for

the Afghan people, who have been afflicted by brutal

wars for over two decades and who presently face the

most horrible and unprecedented internal displacement.

The changes that we are witnessing in the nature

of international relations today, and the accompanying

accelerated trends in the fields of globalization,

technology, modern communications and economic

openness have not only had a positive impact on the

lives and interests of certain States and peoples but

have rather contributed to widening the security,

economic, social, cultural and information gap and

differences between the peoples of the developed and

the developing countries. At the same time, they have

helped to spawn new situations of conflict, civil and

ethnic wars and transnational problems. Accordingly,

we believe that the first steps to be taken to confront

the totality of these problems require, primarily,

finding a clear, comprehensive and balanced strategy of

regional and international cooperation that takes into

consideration, as a matter of priority, the extent to

which the concept of international security and peace,

on the one hand, and the problems of humanitarian

need and sustainable development, on the other, are

linked.

In this context, we stress the importance of the

assumption by the United Nations, in cooperation and

coordination with other regional organizations, of a

larger role in international affairs. We believe in

dialogue and peaceful negotiations as an ideal approach

for resolving disputes. We therefore look forward to a

response from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the call

by the United Arab Emirates to find a peaceful

settlement to the occupation of our three islands,

Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Moussa, either

through direct negotiations or by referring the dispute

to the International Court of Justice to be resolved on

the basis of the purposes and principles of the Charter

and the principles of international law.

We also hope that the visit to Tehran of His

Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan,

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on 23 July 2001,

and that of Mr. Mohamed Ali Abtahi, the Iranian

President’s envoy, to Abu Dhabi on 6 August 2001,

will contribute to the serious efforts being made to find

a peaceful solution to the issue of Iran’s occupation of

our three islands, promote confidence-building and

enhance the principle of peaceful coexistence, mutual

cooperation and good-neighbourliness.

Furthermore, the United Arab Emirates would

like once again to welcome the acceptance by the two

fraternal States of Qatar and Bahrain of the decision of

the International Court of Justice on the settlement of

their previous disagreement over the disputed areas. It

also notes with satisfaction the arrangements made for

the demarcation of the boundaries between some

countries of the region and stresses that continuation of

such an approach and peaceful trends in international

relations will strengthen the foundations of regional

and international peace and security.

The question of Iraq has been taken up by the

United Nations for 11 years and the Iraqi people are

still suffering from the continuation of the international

economic sanctions imposed on them. Although the

oil-for-food programme has helped alleviate the

suffering of certain sectors of Iraqi society, it clearly

does not constitute the practical mechanism required to

contain and deal with the human tragedies and far-

reaching destructive effects that these sanctions

continue to inflict, not only on the infrastructure and

institutions of the basic services sectors of the Iraqi

people, but also with regard to people’s most

elementary necessities, including nutritional, medical,

educational and other care. We therefore call for a

40

political formula acceptable to all the parties concerned

that will ensure that the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi

people are lifted and, at the same time, the sovereignty

and territorial integrity of Iraq are maintained.

The re-establishment of normal ties between Iraq

and Kuwait requires efforts to resolve the problems

that have arisen as a result of Iraq’s occupation of

Kuwait in 1990, the most important of which is the

return of Kuwaiti nationals and others held hostage or

as prisoners of war, in accordance with international

resolutions.

We welcome the Security Council resolution last

September to lift the international sanctions imposed

on our brother country Sudan. We also demand that the

Security Council follow the same procedures in regard

to the international sanctions imposed on our fraternal

country Libya, especially now that its Government has

completely fulfilled its commitments under the relevant

Council resolutions.

Since 28 September of last year, the occupied

Palestinian territories have seen human tragedies and

acts of violence because of the policy of State terrorism

pursued by Israel against the Palestinian people,

including re-occupation of territories, expansion of

settlements, escalation of bombing and destruction of

economic and physical infrastructure in the Palestinian

territories, in addition to systematic liquidation and

massacres that have claimed the lives of more than

1,300 martyrs and tens of thousands of other innocent

casualties, half of whom are children and women.

The United Arab Emirates warmly welcomes the

announcement made by President Bush three days ago

in which he committed his country to helping establish

peaceful coexistence between two States, Israel and

Palestine. Once again, we fully support the right of

Palestinians to self-determination and to establish their

own independent State with Jerusalem as its capital. In

addition, we strongly condemn all flagrant violations

by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people.

We call upon the United Nations — especially the

Security Council and its permanent members — in

particular the United States, and European Union

members to take all necessary and effective measures

to avoid bias and double standards and to bring

pressure to bear on Israel to end immediately all its

terrorist acts of aggression against Palestinians, their

towns and holy sites. In this connection, we call for the

establishment, without delay, of an international

mechanism to provide the necessary protection for the

Palestinian people.

The attainment of security and just and

comprehensive peace and stability in the Middle East

requires that Israel comply strictly with the agreements

and protocols it has concluded within the framework of

the peace process and relevant resolutions of the

United Nations. Those resolutions all call upon Israel

to withdraw completely from all Palestinian and other

Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, including

the Holy City of Jerusalem, the Syrian Arab Golan and

the Shab’a farms in Lebanon. They also call for the

removal of existing settlements and the return of

Palestinian refugees to their homes.

Israel’s possession of prohibited weapons,

especially nuclear weapons, is a direct threat to

regional and international peace and security. We

therefore renew our call on the international

community to pressure the Israeli Government to

dismantle its dangerous arsenal of weapons. We would

also like to emphasize that comprehensive international

disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, and

improving international mechanisms and arrangements

for non-proliferation have top priority in the area of

regional and international security concerns. We also

call upon nuclear States and States that continue to

pursue the acquisition of such weapons to end such

dangerous policies, which threaten regional and

international peace and security.

We are following with deep concern the political

and military events that have erupted in many regions,

particularly in South and South-East Asia, certain

African countries and the Balkans. We therefore stress

the need for the parties concerned to muster the

necessary political will and to try to resolve their

problems and disputes by resorting to dialogue and

peaceful means, and on the basis of the principles of

international law and United Nations resolutions.

Despite the encouraging rates of economic

growth and recovery achieved by some countries in the

last few years as a result of the information revolution,

globalization and the formidable technological

developments in the fields of communications and free

markets, international reports and statistics have

recently indicated a slow-down in global economic

growth due to the lack of a clear strategy for regional

and international economic cooperation. That slow-

down has in turn aggravated the economic imbalance

41

between the countries of the North and those of the

South. While the countries of the North enjoy

prosperity, those of the South continue to suffer from

poverty, unemployment, disease and environmental

pollution.

Therefore the United Arab Emirates, which is

accustomed to extending financial development

investment and humanitarian assistance to many

developing countries and countries affected by natural

disasters and armed conflicts, calls upon developed

countries and international specialized agencies to

increase both their official and unofficial assistance to

developing countries. It is equally important that

official development assistance to poor countries be

increased so as to alleviate the foreign debt burden, to

help those countries secure access to world markets for

their domestic products, to facilitate the transfer of

peaceful technologies, and to assist them in containing

their growing domestic problems so as to combat

poverty, unemployment, environmental degradation

and the spread of disease.

In conclusion, we hope that our deliberations on

the items on the agenda at this session will produce

positive results that will enhance confidence-building

measures and ensure security and stability in this world

of numerous and quickly changing variables.