United Arab Emirates, 2002

I have the honour, on behalf of my country,

the United Arab Emirates, to extend to you, Sir, and to

your friendly country, the Czech Republic, our

congratulations on your election to the presidency of

the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session. We

are confident that your great skill and diplomatic

experience in international affairs will assist you in

achieving the goals of this session. We wish you and

the members of the Bureau great success.

I also would like to thank your predecessor,

Mr. Han Seung-soo, for his effective leadership during

the previous session.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome

and congratulate the Swiss Confederation on becoming

a Member of the United Nations. We also look forward

to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste soon

joining the Organization, which will enhance its

universality.

We would also like to express our appreciation to

the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his wise

leadership and his tireless efforts to enhance the role of

the United Nations in maintaining peace, security and

stability in the world.

The States of the world are gathered here today at

the beginning of a new session of the General

Assembly, hopeful of reaching more effective and

transparent solutions to the world's problems, based on

fairness and justice, and of establishing peace in the

world, which is experiencing instability and an

imbalance in international relations.

In addition to civil and regional wars, more than

half of the world's population is suffering from

poverty, famine, epidemics and fatal diseases. Some

countries are still occupying the territory of others.

This is creating tension and instability in many regions

of the world, which is endangering regional and

international peace and security.

14

As the international community faces an

increasing number of challenges, we are becoming

more aware of the importance of complying with the

principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of

respecting the sovereignty of international law in

resolving, by peaceful means, disputes, conflict and

instances of occupation.

In this age of globalization and rapid

development in information and communication

technologies, the world has become a small village that

can be reached from anywhere. The different interests

of the world's nations have become intertwined more

than ever. Thus the problems and sufferings of other

peoples cannot be ignored because of geographical

distances or differences of culture, civilization and

beliefs.

The current events in the world prove, without a

doubt, that the outcomes of conflicts and wars and the

problems of poverty, drug abuse and disease extend

beyond their geographical borders, reaching secure

regions and threatening their stability. For that reason,

the establishment of international peace and security in

the world is the joint responsibility of all Governments

and nations, of their public as well as private

institutions. The dire need for a global partnership,

working under the umbrella of the United Nations with

a view to creating a comprehensive and calculated

strategy that takes into consideration international law,

human and cultural values and people's needs and

suffering can never be overestimated.

The United Arab Emirates is well aware of the

strategic importance of the Arabian Gulf region, and it

is aware that the security of the Arabian Gulf cannot be

separated from international peace and security.

Furthermore, the United Arab Emirates, guided by the

wise leadership of His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin

Sultan A1-Nahyan, the President of the country,

believes in solving disputes by peaceful means, based

on the principles of the United Nations Charter and the

provisions of international law. On that basis, the

United Arab Emirates calls upon the Islamic Republic

of Iran to solve the issue of its occupation of the three

islands, Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Moussa,

through bilateral talks or through the International

Court of Justice. We also reaffirm that the United Arab

Emirates has complete sovereignty over these three

islands, including their air space, their regional waters,

the continental shelf and the economic region related to

them, as they are an indivisible part of the United Arab

Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates has more than once

shown good will and a serious desire to reach a

peaceful solution to the issue of the three islands. This

was done through two visits by his Highness, Sheikh

Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, representing the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Tehran, in addition to

mutual visits made by the two parties. The United Arab

Emirates hopes that those visits will contribute to

bringing both parties closer and to reaching a peaceful

solution for the three islands. This will reinforce the

principle of security and of regional and international

peace. In addition, it will affirm the principle of

dialogue, peaceful coexistence, trust and good

neighbourliness.

We have witnessed, during this session, new and

encouraging developments regarding the Iraqi issue

and the security and stability of the region. The United

Arab Emirates welcomes Iraq's acceptance of the

return of the United Nations inspectors, in

implementation of the relevant Security Council

resolutions. This decision will spare Iraq and the region

untold tragedies and catastrophes. We look forward to

real cooperation, one built on the United Nations

Charter and international resolutions, in order to reach

stability and cooperation among the States of the

region and to resolve all remaining problems that

hinder trust, stability and collaboration among the

different parties. We call upon the international

community to support the Iraqi decision, to exert

greater efforts to solve the pending issues between Iraq

and the United Nations, and to lift the sanctions

imposed on the Iraqi people and under which they have

suffered for 12 years. We welcome, furthermore, the

positive attitude expressed by Iraq towards returning

the Kuwaiti national archives and properties. We urge

it to show more goodwill and take more effective steps

by freeing the Kuwaiti prisoners of war and those of

third countries, returning the rest of the Kuwaiti

properties, respecting the sovereignty of Kuwait and

not interfering in Kuwait's internal affairs.

We also reiterate the United Arab Emirates'

position with regard to the resolution adopted by the

Arab Summit in Beirut in March 2002. This resolution

rejects the use of force or the threat to use it, along

with any military attack against Iraq. This position

aims to protect the region from another unnecessary

war. We reiterate, furthermore, the importance of

15

securing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of

Iraq.

The United Arab Emirates is very concerned

about the dangerous events in the occupied Palestinian

territories. We express our sympathy and solidarity

with the Palestinian people in their ordeal. We also

denounce all acts of aggression committed by the

occupying Israeli forces, and we demand that the

international community, in particular the large

influential countries, the United States of America and

the European Union, compel Israel to end immediately

all acts of murder, destruction, closure and

displacement of the Palestinian people.

The United Arab Emirates renews its support of

the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and

the establishment of their independent State, with

Jerusalem as its capital. Accordingly, we reaffirm our

support of the Arab peace initiative that was endorsed

at the Beirut Summit. This initiative comprises a

process for a just and comprehensive settlement that

ensures the rights of both parties. Such a position was

expressed by United States President George W. Bush

in a speech calling for the creation of a Palestinian

State.

We also call upon Israel to end its continuous

violations of the agreements it made within the

framework of the peace process and to resume peace

talks in accordance with General Assembly and

Security Council resolutions, in particular resolutions

181 (1947), 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002), and

425 (1978). These call for Israel's withdrawal from the

Palestinian occupied lands, including the city of

Jerusalem, to the 1967 borders, from the Syrian Golan

Heights to the line set before 4 June 1967 and from the

Lebanese Shabaa farms, and for the dismantling of all

settlements in occupied Palestinian and Arab lands and

for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.

Maintaining peace and security in the Middle

East and the Arabian Gulf region depends, to a great

extent, on applying a more comprehensive and

transparent concept that entails the removal of weapons

of mass destruction. The fact that Israel has these

weapons, including nuclear weapons, is a direct threat

to regional and international security. Accordingly, we

again urge the international community and relevant

international organizations to pressure Israel, by all

means possible, to abandon its nuclear weapons and to

subject its nuclear facilities to the supervision of the

International Atomic Energy Agency. This proposal

aims to establish a nuclear-free zone, along with a zone

that is free of weapons of mass destruction, in the

Middle East and the Arabian Gulf, similar to other

regions in the world.

The United Arab Emirates watches with great

concern the escalation in tensions between India and

Pakistan. We call upon these two countries to deal with

their disputes in a spirit of joint political responsibility

that ensures the security of the region and the world.

We ask them to resume bilateral negotiations to resolve

their standing disputes peacefully in order to maintain

regional and international peace and security.

International terrorism is a direct threat to the stability

of nations and to international peace and the world

economy. In denouncing all acts of terrorism,

regardless of their motives and sources, the United

Arab Emirates reaffirms its commitment to relevant

United Nations resolutions on terrorism. It renews its

call for an international conference on terrorism to

reach a clear definition of terrorism based on the

principles of the Charter of the United Nations and

regional and international treaties, conventions and

covenants.

Political and historical events have proven that

economic deterioration, poverty, lack of water, debts

and foreign occupation pose dangerous threats to life

resources and the security of human beings. They are a

main cause of conflicts, violence, ethnic cleansing and

instability. On that basis, the leaders of the world

insisted, in the Plan of Implementation and the Political

Declaration of the Johannesburg World Summit on

Sustainable Development, on the common and

differentiated responsibility to solve these problems

and on the importance of providing the financial

resources to achieve the goals of economic, social and

environmental development to eradicate poverty, raise

standards of living and achieve global economic

development.

The United Arab Emirates calls on the

Governments of the developed countries to honour the

commitments they made in Johannesburg — especially

with respect to the developing and least developed

countries, as specified in the recommendations

emanating from the Summit — and in particular the

financial resolutions requiring the developed countries

to contribute 0.7 per cent of their national production

to help poor, developing States to implement

development programmes in their countries.

16

We call upon Governments and relevant

organizations to comply with resolutions relevant to

sustainable development. The United Arab Emirates

has consistently initiated and provided development,

financial and humanitarian assistance to many

countries, especially developing countries, that suffer

from civil and regional wars and natural disasters. We

also call upon the international financial institutions to

adopt more balanced and fair financial policies to

alleviate the developing countries' external debt

burden. This would give them the opportunity to

participate in formulating decision-making policies

relevant to the environment and sustainable

development and to help them join the global market,

thus reviving and enhancing their national economies.

They would thereby become productive members of

the international community, effectively promoting the

stability of international economic relations.

Finally, we hope that the debates on the items on

the agenda of this session will achieve positive and

concrete results, enhancing the role of the Organization

in maintaining international peace and security and

making the world a better place for human society.