United Arab Emirates, 2003

On behalf of the United Arab Emirates, I have

the honour to extend to Mr. Hunte and to his friendly

country, Saint Lucia, our sincerest congratulations on

his election to the presidency of the General assembly

at its fifty-eighth session.

I should also like to thank his predecessor, Mr.

Jan Kavan, for his valuable efforts and effective

leadership of the previous session.

On this occasion, I would also like to express our

appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his

wise leadership and perseverance in his efforts to

enhance the role of the United Nations in maintaining

peace, security and sustainable development.

Despite our hopes and the great humanitarian

expectations that we entertained with the dawn of the

new millennium, there remain many regional and

international issues that have not been resolved and are

a major concern to us all. They represent a serious

threat to international peace and security, as well as to

the stability, development and prosperity of peoples, all

of which depend on respect for and implementation of

the norms of international laws, and conventions.

The regrettable events that our world is

witnessing today are but the natural aftermath of the

previous political era, which was characterized by

conflicts, occupation, oppression, injustice, the violation

of human rights and wars that led to a wide range of

arm races at the expense of human, economic and

environmental development. If we are to confront and

contain these challenges and their repercussions, it is

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important to reform the United Nations and all its main

bodies — especially the Security Council, the General

Assembly and the Economic and Social Council — as

well as to enhance cooperation and coordination

between these international organizations and regional

organizations.

Maintaining stability and security in the Arab

Gulf area is an essential priority, not only for the peoples

of the region, but also for the entire world. Accordingly,

within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council

and of bilateral, regional and international relations, the

United Arab Emirates has adopted a foreign policy

based on peaceful coexistence, confidence-building,

good-neighbourliness, mutual respect, non-interference in

the internal affairs of others, the settlement of disputes

and the ending of occupation by peaceful means.

On the basis of its commitment to these doctrines

and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

the United Arab Emirates believes that the way to end the

occupation of its three islands — Greater Tumb, Lesser

Tumb and Abu Moussa — by the Islamic Republic of

Iran is by peaceful means that would spare the region

from the atrocities of warfare from which its people

have suffered for the past three decades. Therefore, the

United Arab Emirates reiterates its call on the Islamic

Republic of Iran to reconsider its position and to

respond to the peaceful initiative that we announced a

few years ago, which calls on both countries to engage

in serious bilateral negotiations or to resort to the

International Court of Justice, as has been done in other

bilateral issues that have been settled in accordance

with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations

and the provisions of international law.

The question of the three occupied islands, which

belong to the United Arab Emirates, has been on the

agenda of the Security Council since their occupation

by Iran in 1971. In this regard, we reaffirm the

complete sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates over

Greater Tumb, Lesser Tumb and Abu Moussa and on

their regional air space and waters, the continental

shelf and the economic zone of the three islands, which

are considered an indivisible part of the regional

sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates. The United

Arab Emirates calls on the Iranian Government to

address this sensitive and important issue in a positive

spirit in order to end the occupation. We hope that the

current bilateral communications and meetings

between the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic

Republic of Iran will lead to a solution that will cement

their good-neighbourly relations, enhance cooperation

and mutual interests between the two countries, and

strengthen the foundations of security, stability and

prosperity in this important region.

Since the last session of the General Assembly,

the world has witnessed many changes in the political

and security fields that have had a strong impact on our

international relations, especially those related to peace

and security in the Arab Gulf region. This has had

consequences and repercussions that may undermine

the foundations of peace, stability and development in

the area and the world.

The United Arab Emirates, which is deeply

concerned about the continued suffering of the

brotherly Iraqi people and the deterioration of their

humanitarian, security, social, economic and

environmental conditions, reaffirms that the restoration

of security and stability in Iraq and the country’s return

to the international community will not be achieved

without the collective efforts of the regional and

international community to help the Iraqi people

reform their constitutional and developmental

institutions and to enable them to manage their internal

affairs and external relations with their neighbours and

other countries so that they can play their responsible

and historic role in the region.

We therefore reiterate our expression of welcome

and support for the efforts made by the provisional

Iraqi Governing Council and the interim Iraqi

Administration. We hope that the United Nations will

play an increasingly important role in resolving the

situation in Iraq; in its reconstruction; in maintaining

its territorial integrity, unity and the right of its people

to self-determination; in the election of its

Government; in its political future; and in the

exploitation of its natural resources.

The United Arab Emirates has been closely

following the dangerous developments in the occupied

Palestinian territories. We condemn the policies of

targeted killings and closure being carried out by Israel, in

violation of all relevant international and humanitarian

laws. We therefore call upon the Quartet and on other

influential countries to revitalize the peace process and

to compel Israel to implement the road map, which

stipulates an end to the Israeli occupation and the

establishment of a Palestinian State by 2005. The road

map also calls on Israel to refrain from building illegal

settlements and to ensure the return of the refugees.

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We demand that Israel cease placing obstacles in

the way of the implementation of the road map —

obstacles such as the killing and destruction

perpetrated by Israeli occupying forces against

Palestinians and their property in the West Bank and

the Gaza Strip. We also demand that Israel lift the

unjust siege on President Yasser Arafat and the

Palestinian people, dismantle the separation fence and

release Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

A fair, lasting and comprehensive settlement of

the Middle East conflict requires a commitment by

Israel to adhere to international resolutions, which are

based on the principle of land for peace; the Arab

peace initiative, endorsed by the Beirut Summit,

including the Syrian and Lebanese tracks; and Israeli

withdrawal from all Palestinian and Arab lands

occupied since 1967, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif, the

Syrian Golan and the Lebanese Shaba’a Farms area.

The Middle East region, including the Arab Gulf,

must be freed of all weapons of mass destruction, and

Israel must join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of

Nuclear Weapons and subject its nuclear facilities to

the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy

Agency, pursuant to relevant United Nations resolutions.

The United Arab Emirates condemns all forms

and manifestations of terrorism. We call for the

mustering of national, regional and international efforts

to combat and eradicate such a dangerous phenomenon,

because it is exploited by radicals and outlaws as

means to achieve their destructive goals.

In this respect, we express our deepest sorrow

following the criminal attack perpetrated against the

United Nations headquarters, as well as against the

Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad and against the Imam

Ali mosque in Najaf, which resulted in the killing of

Imam Mohammed Baqer Alhakeem and a number of

innocent victims. We stand shoulder to shoulder with

those countries that have been the targets of terrorist

criminal attacks, in particular our brothers in the

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We express our support for

all the measures taken by Saudi Arabia to eradicate

these terrorist activities.

In the meantime, we call on the international

community to convene an international conference to

tackle terrorism and eradicate its causes and tools. We

also reaffirm the importance of respect for human

rights, transparency and openness based on mutual

respect of the cultural heritage and the beliefs of

peoples, so as to avoid creating a fertile breeding ground

for frustration and hatred from which the terrorists derive

their raison d’être and their motivation.

Despite the numerous international conferences,

particularly the World Summit on Sustainable

Development and the International Conference on

Financing for Development, aimed at tackling the

imbalance in international economic relations and its

effect on international economic development, the

majority of the world’s people continue to live in

unstable and inhuman conditions, characterized by

increased poverty, the spread of disease and illiteracy,

because of the increasing economic gap between

developed and developing countries. Developed

countries must commit to implementing the pledges

they made according to international resolutions.

From this perspective, the United Arab Emirates

calls on the international community to fulfil its

commitment to providing development assistance to poor

countries, in particular the least developed countries.

International financial and development institutions as

well as the private sector should plan strategies geared

towards providing financial and development resources in

order to implement economic development programmes

in developing and poor countries, all within an

environmentally friendly framework, ensuring access by

such countries to new technologies, in order to

alleviate the external debt burden and remove tariffs on

international trade, which would benefit all countries of

the world.

On this occasion, I cannot fail to point out the

confidence placed in the United Arab Emirates by the

international community through its hosting of the

annual meeting of the heads of the International

Monetary Fund and of the World Bank in the Emirate

of Dubai, a meeting that concluded its work on 24

September. We are very satisfied with the outcome of

that meeting, particularly the special attention it

focused on the question of development and

cooperation for the purpose of alleviating the impact of

poverty and debt burdens around the world.

In conclusion, the grave challenges facing the

international community today bolster our conviction

more than ever of the importance of adhering to the

principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of

international law, as our point of reference in resolving

regional and international disputes and differences.

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We express the hope that the meetings and

debates held during this session of the General

Assembly will succeed in strengthening the role of the

United Nations as a multilateral Organization and in

the maintenance of international peace and security.