United Arab Emirates, 2004

Mr. President, on behalf of the United Arab

Emirates, it gives me great pleasure to begin my

statement by congratulating you, Sir, and your friendly

country, the Gabonese Republic, on your election as

President of the fifty-ninth session of this Assembly.

Given your political skills and experience, we are

confident that you will competently and successfully

lead our deliberations on pressing global and regional

issues. We wish you every success in your endeavours.

On this occasion, I wish to pay tribute to your

predecessor, Mr. Julian Robert Hunte, for his wise and

skilful management of the activities of the previous

session. It also gives me pleasure to reiterate our

appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Kofi Annan, the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his

consistent efforts to strengthen the leading role of the

United Nations, especially in resolving the political

conflicts and economic crises that continue to plague

our world.

Notwithstanding the achievements of the last

century and their positive impact on the principles of

liberalization, globalization and freedom, recent

events, especially during the last few years, have

included, violations of human rights, the outbreak of

terrorist attacks and the eruption of violence and

conflicts. These events have, to a great extent, limited

peoples’ ability to reap the benefits of most of these

achievements. Instead of directing efforts towards

solving the problems related to poverty, the spread of

epidemics, improving sustainable economic,

environmental and social development mechanisms

and strengthening international relations — as outlined

in the Millennium Declaration — the world had to

devote a great part of its efforts to further exploring

coordinated measures for combating these grave

threats, which have shaken the underpinnings of

international peace and security.

Previous experience has shown that regional and

international multilateral initiatives built on principles

of partnership, justice, transparency and equality

among peoples and States can address and contain

global challenges. Therefore, we are convinced that

carrying out the reform needed in the existing

structures of international relations, especially in the

United Nations system, has become an important

priority so that its principal organs — the Security

Council, the General Assembly and the Economic and

Social Council — can revitalize their activities and

fulfil their responsibilities in terms of maintaining

international peace and security.

Commitment by all countries and governments to

discharge their responsibilities in accordance with the

principles of international law is a key condition for

enforcing the rule of law and avoiding potential

economic, environmental and security problems.

Therefore, the United Arab Emirates, as a Member of

the United Nations, is committed to meet its

obligations, especially those related to promoting

friendly relations with neighbouring countries,

cooperation in the security and economic fields and

respect for the sovereignty, national unity and

territorial integrity and the right to self-determination

of all countries.

Proceeding from its belief in the value of

dialogue, peaceful negotiations and legal arbitration in

settling conflicts and disputes among countries, the

United Arab Emirates has pursued a firm and peaceful

policy regarding the question of the occupation by the

Islamic Republic of Iran of our three islands: Greater

Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abou Moussa. The

international community is now aware of the legal,

historical and political grounds of this case, as well as

all the initiatives, contacts and constant efforts by my

country at various levels to find a peaceful solution to

this question.

The United Arab Emirates is perplexed at the

position of Iran and its constant rejection of all

peaceful initiatives and endeavours by the member

States of the Gulf Cooperation Council to find a

peaceful solution to this important issue. Therefore, the

United Arab Emirates calls upon the international

community to urge Iran either to clarify its intentions

towards the United Arab Emirates by entering

unconditionally into serious bilateral negotiations

which ensure restoration of the three occupied islands,

their continental shelves and regional airspace and

their economic zones to the full sovereignty and

territorial unity of the United Arab Emirates, or to

accept referral of this case to the International Court of

Justice for arbitration.

44

The regrettable developments taking place on the

security front in the Arabian Gulf region have created

serious challenges to the international community due

to the sensitive nature of this region and the emergence

of new forms of threats, which include terrorist acts,

kidnappings and arbitrary killing of hundreds of

innocent people in various areas in Iraq and other

countries. In this context, the United Arab Emirates

expresses its strong condemnation of all acts of

violence in Iraq, which if not contained will lead to an

escalation of tension and instability in the entire

region, as well as the world. We also express our

support to the legitimate endeavours of the Iraqi people

and their interim Government to complete

arrangements for a peaceful transition of authority as

soon as possible, to exercise their inalienable right to

decide their political future and internal affairs, control

their natural resources, rebuild their national

institutions and maintain security on their borders.

We also attach great importance to supporting

international and regional efforts to help the Iraqi

people to rehabilitate their destroyed institutions, and

to the unity and solidarity of the Iraqi people especially

during this critical stage, in order to enable them to

start a new phase in which security, stability, good-

neighbourly relations and cooperation with all

countries of the world prevail.

The United Arab Emirates reiterates its strong

condemnation of all acts of terrorism in the Gulf

region, especially in the fraternal Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia and other areas where a number of residential

areas were targets of horrific terrorist attacks. The

United Arab Emirates declares its full support for the

continuing efforts and measures taken by these

countries to combat those inadmissible acts, including

those by the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia to defeat those criminal terrorist attempts inside

Saudi territory.

The United Arab Emirates believes that

settlement of the Middle East question cannot be

achieved with the position of a de facto situation of

occupation, settlement, and siege of the Palestinian

people, who are now facing the worst humanitarian

crisis in their history because of the acts of arbitrary

killing, destruction, starvation and unjustified mass

detentions by the Israeli authorities. The United Arab

Emirates affirms that continuation of the Israeli

aggression will inevitably lead to more violence and

deterioration in the security situation.

We therefore recall the historical, political and

legal responsibility of the United Nations and the

Quartet, which is now responsible for finding a

settlement of the Palestinian question through obliging

Israel, the occupying Power, to unconditionally comply

with the terms of the road map and other relevant

international resolutions, especially those issued by the

International Court of Justice and the General

Assembly that call for dismantling the racist separation

wall in the West Bank, as it is considered illegal and

null and void.

We also affirm that establishment of a

comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region

depends on the ability of the international community

to end Israel’s intransigence, on revitalization of the

peace process and on full Israeli withdrawal from all

Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since

1967, including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan and

the Shab’a farms. It depends also on the establishment

of a Palestinian State with its capital at Al-Quds al-

Sharif, pursuant to the relevant international

resolutions and the fundamentals of the existing Arab

peace initiative, which is based on the principle of land

for peace. In that context, we also affirm the

importance of respecting the wishes of the Lebanese

people and of not interfering in its internal affairs.

Attaining and maintaining balance in the security

situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region is

today a matter of high priority. It requires a

comprehensive, non-discriminatory, confidence-

building policy that will lead to the elimination of all

existing arsenals of weapons of mass destruction as

part of an international process of non-proliferation.

Here, we look forward to the outcome of the recent

visit of the Director General of the International

Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to a number of

countries in the region, which was aimed at convincing

their Governments to relinquish the nuclear arsenals

that pose a threat to neighbouring countries.

In that connection, we renew our appeal to the

international community to take all necessary measures

to compel the Israeli Government to accede to the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT) and to subject all its nuclear facilities to the

IAEA international safeguards system, so that a zone

free of weapons of mass destruction can be established

in the Arabian Gulf and the Middle East regions.

45

Reports of the Secretary-General on the world

economic and social situation reveal that almost a

billion people lack food, drinking water, job

opportunities, housing and educational, health and

social services. The United Arab Emirates has a good

record of providing development and relief assistance

to many countries, and we believe that the international

community should address those challenges as its

common responsibility, requiring complete fulfilment

of the commitments and pledges made by developed

nations at United Nations conferences and summits on

sustainable development and on financing for

development. Those pledges relate to increasing

assistance to developing countries, rescheduling

foreign debt, easing restrictions on foreign trade,

increasing foreign investment and providing access to

modern technologies for peaceful purposes. That would

enable developing countries to share equally in the

benefits of globalization.

Further, we welcome current efforts to set up a

global fund to end poverty by 2015. Here, we affirm

that there must be progress in negotiations on North-

South cooperation and on coordination among regional

and international organizations if we are to put an end

to the negative effects of repeated financial and

economic crises and ensure steady assistance flows and

the stability of commodity markets. Policies and

choices to liberalize world trade and the world

economy must be reviewed from a development

perspective, taking into account the concerns and needs

of small countries and developing countries, and their

right to attain development and participate in the

international decision-making process. This would

enable their economies to avoid stagnation and

marginalization, and would ensure the implementation

of national programmes to diversify national

production, develop human resources and reduce levels

of unemployment, poverty and disease.

We hope that our deliberations at this session will

have a positive outcome that will enhance our

perception of our common causes and buttress our joint

efforts to create a prosperous world based on the rule

of law and justice, a world in which tolerance, well-

being and progress prevail.