Yemen, 2000

Permit

me, at the outset, to extend to you, Mr. President, my

congratulations on your election to the presidency of

the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. Let me

also pay a tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben

Gurirab, who guided the work of the previous session

of the General Assembly most successfully.

This session acquires special importance, not

only because it is the first of the new millennium, but

also because it coincides with the convening of the

Millennium Summit, which gathered together, for the

first time, a majority of the world's leaders. Therefore,

the historic instruments that emerged from the Summit

were a culmination of that momentous occasion.

The Republic of Yemen, as President Ali

Abdullah Saleh emphasized in his statement at the

Millennium Summit, is committed to achieving those

ideals and objectives, supporting the leadership role of

the United Nations and promoting the purposes of its

Charter, with a view to upholding the principles of

freedom, equality and justice, so that every society can

assume its national responsibilities for comprehensive

and sustainable development, including poverty

eradication, the provision of food, shelter, health care

and education, ensuring fundamental freedoms, human

rights and democracy and enabling women to play their

role in society.

Accordingly, the Republic of Yemen supports

efforts by the Secretary-General to develop the role,

mechanisms and organs of the international

Organization to meet the challenges of twenty-first

century. It also supports moves towards the renewal

and development of inter-State relations and towards

bringing them into line with new global phenomena

that call for democracy, respect for human rights and

the transformation of globalization into a positive force

that will benefit all inhabitants of the world. In this

connection, the Republic of Yemen reaffirms its

invitation to host the Fifth International Conference of

New or Restored Democracies, to be held in 2003.

Our world has become a single village where

events interact globally with no room for isolationism.

The merging of States' economies is the most

prominent feature of mutual dependency and,

consequently, of shared responsibility aimed at creating

an environment at the national and global levels

conducive to development and poverty eradication.

Good governance, as stated in the United Nations

Millennium Declaration, must exist not only within

each country but at the international level and be based

on laws and transparency in financial, monetary and

trading systems.

2

In our view, this requires that the developed

industrialized countries fulfil their commitments to

provide official development assistance to developing

countries, address the special needs of the least

developed countries, provide debt relief to poor

countries and agree to cancel all official bilateral debts.

Within this context we would also include the removal

of all barriers against the exports of developing

countries seeking access to world markets.

This year our people celebrated the tenth

anniversary of the restoration of blessed Yemeni unity.

The Republic of Yemen has been able to achieve

successes in the democratic process, freedom, justice,

respect for human rights and the enablement of women

to play their role in society. While our people proceed

to incorporate new concepts, with the aim of adapting

to new world developments, they suffer from the

financial burdens and the assumption of tasks inherent

in comprehensive economic and social reform. In

addition, the processes relating to economic

liberalization — lifting subsidies on various foods and

fuel and reducing public services, as prescribed by

international financing institutions — have created

social tensions. We therefore call upon the advanced

industrialized countries to understand this underlying

reality of shared responsibility in the context of

comprehensive and sustainable development in the

developing countries as a guarantee for international

development, security and stability.

The Republic of Yemen has persevered in

advocating attainment of peace and stability at the

regional and the international levels by the surest ways,

namely by resolving all disputes peacefully and

through the use of mechanisms for the resolution of

disputes, which embodies faith in the purposes and

principles of the Charter of the United Nations. We in

the Republic of Yemen are proud to have placed

practical reliance on those principles in resolving

border issues with three neighbouring States: the

Sultanate of Oman, Eritrea and, recently, the Kingdom

of Saudi Arabia.

A new era of brotherhood, cooperation and

mutual interests between the Republic of Yemen and

the fraternal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was inaugurated

on 12 June 2000, following the signature of a treaty

between the two countries on international territorial

and maritime boundaries. We deem it an historic

achievement by all criteria, since it ends a long period

of tension and instability. The frontiers between the

countries have become bridges of love, brotherhood

and cooperation. This will, unquestionably, contribute

to general stability in the region.

Within this framework one may understand

Yemen's strong desire and long-term efforts to

contribute to a resolution of the problems that have

plagued Somalia. Now that the Arta conference has

been held, the Transitional National Assembly has been

constituted and the country's President has been

elected, we support the implementation of the

resolutions that emerged from the conference. We hope

that the consensus between the representatives of the

various Somali factions present at the conference will

lead to stability and prepare the way for the

commencement of a process of comprehensive and

sustainable development in an atmosphere of national

reconciliation. In this regard, we must commend the

great efforts made by President Ismail Omar Guelleh of

the Republic of Djibouti to ensure the success of the

Arta conference.

The return to normalcy in Somalia will

unquestionably promote security and stability in the

Horn of Africa, which has suffered the scourge of war

and its effects. That suffering can be seen in the cross-

border flows of refugees. In the case of Yemen,

hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia and

other States of the region have infiltrated the country

via our coasts. We appeal to the international

community to extend assistance to resolve the problem

of refugees and ensure their return to their homelands

for the sake of stability and reconstruction in the

region.

The Republic of Yemen believes that the peace

that people seek is a peace based on justice, equality

and respect for human rights. Accordingly, peace in the

Middle East should be based primarily on the

restoration of all the legitimate rights of the Palestinian

people. Foremost among those rights is the

establishment of an independent Palestinian State on

Palestinian soil with Jerusalem as its capital. Israel

must also withdraw from all occupied Arab territories

in the Syrian Golan.

We would also like to convey our esteem and

congratulations to fraternal Lebanon and its people on

the unconditional liberation of its southern part.

The world is still amassing large quantities of

weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons endanger

international security and stability and hinder any steps

3

towards finding solutions to development problems. In

accordance with relevant resolutions of the General

Assembly, we in the Republic of Yemen stress the

importance of making the Middle East region an area

free from nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass

destruction. We also endorse the international

community's call to exert pressure on Israel to adhere

to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to place all its

nuclear installations under international supervision.

Iraq is experiencing a human tragedy as a result

of the embargo that has been imposed on it for 10

years. While calling for the implementation of United

Nations resolutions concerning Iraq, we stress from

this rostrum the need to end that tragic situation by

lifting the embargo. It has lasted too long and has

caused very extensive damage to the entire Iraqi

population, especially women, children and elderly

persons. In the same vein, we call for a complete lifting

of the embargoes imposed on the Sudan and Libya.

With regard to the dispute over the three Arabian

Gulf islands belonging to the United Arab Emirates,

Yemen hopes that an amicable and peaceful solution to

that issue will be decided along the lines followed by

the Republic of Yemen in the resolution of its border

disputes with its neighbours.

Lastly, we welcome all the resolutions calling for

the reform of the United Nations and its structure so as

to make it more transparent and democratic, including

resolutions concerning the expansion of the

membership of the Security Council and enhancing and

strengthening the role of the General Assembly in the

maintenance of international peace and security.

It is our hope that resolutions will be adopted at

this important session to contribute to the reform and

restructuring of the United Nations and its organs in

order that it may meet the requirements of the new

century, with its increasing problems and ever more

complex inter-State relations.

It is our responsibility to make this session an

occasion to review our work and to examine the

resolutions adopted by our leaders at the Millennium

Summit so that we can transform them into tangible

reality. Doing so will further our progress towards

achieving security, stability, development and

prosperity for our countries and peoples. I am

confident that our united stance and sincere endeavours

will guarantee the success of this session and the

achievement of the desired results.