Yemen, 2002

At the

outset, I would like to express to you, Sir, our warmest

congratulations on your election to the presidency of

this session and to wish you every success conducting

the affairs of this session. Your ample diplomatic skills

are well known. I wish also to thank your predecessor

for his good conduct of the preceding session. I also

wish to extend my thanks to His Excellency the

Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan for the quality of

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the report that he presented to us on the work of our

Organization and to wish him further success in the

discharge of his tasks.

I am pleased in this connection to convey to you

and all the participants in this session the greetings of

His Excellency President Abdullah Saleh of Yemen,

and his sincere wish that the work of this session be

highly successful, particularly when it is convening

under grave and internationally important

circumstances.

This fifty-seventh session of the General

Assembly of the United Nations is being held while the

world still vividly remembers the terrorist acts and the

tragic and terrifying disaster, which befell the United

States on 11 September 2001 and which represented a

grave development in terrorist acts. This awakened the

international community, requiring it to mobilize all its

potential to face that threat to international peace and

stability. The proliferation of international terrorism

and the exorbitant price it has imposed on many

peoples and States, including my country, has made

fighting terrorism an obligation and a responsibility for

safeguarding peace, stability and development.

My country was among the first States to suffer

from terrorism and its harmful repercussions still affect

us. We have not hesitated to face that danger. Prior to

the September 2001 events, we drew the attention of

the international community to the need to unify efforts

to combat terrorism and eradicate it before it took root.

While doing its best to combat terrorism, my

country has emphasized the need to convene an

international conference on terrorism under the

auspices of the United Nations so that we can reach a

unified definition thereof. We emphasize the need to

distinguish between terrorism and the right of peoples

to resist occupation. We need to end the causes that

create a fertile climate for fostering terrorism.

Israeli violence and terrorism levelled against the

defenceless Palestinian people constitute a genuine

obstacle to the achievement of a just and

comprehensive peace and create hotbeds of extremism

and terrorism. Such violence impedes international

efforts and initiatives to solve the Middle East

question, while threatening stability, security and

prosperity in the region. It also increases the incidence

of violence and extremism and presages unpredictable

consequences. Consequently, the international

community must exert the utmost pressure on Israel to

implement Security Council resolutions 242 (1967),

338 (1973) and 1397 (2002), and General Assembly

resolution 194 (III) of 1948 and to withdraw from all

occupied Arab territories — Palestinian, Syrian and

Lebanese — and return to the 4 June 1967 borders. The

international community must work towards

establishing a Palestinian State, with Al-Quds Al-

Sharif as its capital.

We reiterate our position that the Arab peace

initiative constitutes an integrated framework for the

achievement of peace. Peace for Israel will not be

achieved unless it withdraws from the occupied

Palestinian territories, helps to re-establish the

Palestinian security institutions and grants the

Palestinian Authority control over its own territory.

We stress that the Palestinian people are solely

responsible for choosing their leadership and

representatives for negotiating a final settlement. In

this connection, we look forward to the outcome of the

efforts led by the United States and the other members

of the “quartet” to solve the Middle East question. We

hope that the United States vision will be transformed

into a time-bound programme that will lay down

guidelines to prevent Israel from circumventing any

new agreement, as it did those of Oslo, Camp David

and Sharm el-Sheikh, through recent statements by

Sharon.

Since the Republic of Yemen is interested in the

security and stability of the Middle East, we emphasize

the need for Israel to get rid of its nuclear arsenal and

to subject its nuclear facilities to international

supervision. Israel should strive to free the Middle East

region of weapons of mass destruction.

The policy of imposing sanctions on some Arab

and Islamic countries, Iraq in particular, should be

tackled to ease the considerable harm done to the Iraqi

people. Here, I emphasize my country's position that

the sanctions imposed on Iraq should be lifted. We

reject the use of force against Iraq as long as it abides

by international resolutions.

Yemen warns of the gravity of using force against

Iraq. We also warn of the disastrous consequences for

the region if force is used and if waging war takes

precedence over solving the problem peacefully. A

peaceful approach, such as bringing back the inspectors

and clearing up the doubts about Iraq's possession of

weapons of mass destruction, should be taken. We call

for the lifting of sanctions against Libya, Sudan and

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Cuba and for continuing dialogue as a means to

achieve fair settlements, to safeguard the rights of the

concerned parties and to respect their sovereignty and

systems of government.

Based on our interest in the situation in Somalia

and our endeavours to achieve peace and stability

there, we call on the international community to

intensify its efforts to bring peace to that country and

to support the peace process led by the

Intergovernmental Authority on Development, so as to

preserve the security, territorial integrity and

sovereignty of Somalia. We are ready to contribute to

this international political endeavour.

My country is of the view that current efforts to

reform and restructure the United Nations, including

Security Council reform, should enhance the

Organization's role and achieve broader participation

and more equitable representation in the Council, in

keeping with the principles of the sovereign equality of

States and equitable geographical distribution.

Yemen attaches great importance to the

Millennium Declaration adopted during the Millennium

Summit. It paves the way to new relations in the

twenty-first century; it calls for encouraging dialogue

among civilizations and for the spread of the culture of

peace; and it calls on richer States to shoulder their

responsibility towards least developed countries in

facing the challenges of poverty and deadly disease. In

fact, we have not seen the implementation of any of

those principles. We therefore call upon States to abide

by the Millennium Declaration and implement it in

order to engender better relations between the rich and

the poor; to remove the spectre of the clash of

civilizations and races; to enhance the high principles

and values of religions; and to remove the distorted

view of the tolerant Islamic religion that has been

propagated by others.

The developing countries are suffering from

difficult economic conditions due to poverty,

unemployment, declining living standards, over-

population, mismanagement, debt servicing, and so

forth, in addition to the burdens imposed by new

economic policies. For these States to be fully

integrated into the international economy, they need

new opportunities and support so that they can build

their economies and carry out administrative and

economic structural reforms. They need further

financial assistance and opportunities to compete, as

well as technology transfers on concessional terms.

They should also benefit from investments and

cooperation, and free trade zones need to be

established. We should try to implement the

recommendations of the Third United Nations

Conference on the Least Developed Countries and

cancel the accumulated debts of those countries.

My Government is making strenuous efforts to

achieve full development, to complete the building of

an infrastructure, and to eliminate poverty. Thus, we

have implemented a programme of administrative,

financial and economic reform, and have updated the

investment law to attract foreign capital, with a view to

bolstering the service and economic sectors. We have

begun a carefully prepared and well balanced

privatization programme and are making efforts to join

the World Trade Organization and integrate ourselves

into world economy.

At this session, we look forward to the adoption

of important resolutions that will enhance our joint

campaign to achieve security and stability, welfare and

prosperity for our peoples. I am confident that our

concerted efforts will lead to the success of this session

and will help us achieve the results we desire.

In conclusion, I would like to extend my

congratulations to Switzerland on its admission as a

Member of the Organization and to Timor-Leste on its

coming admission. They will make a fresh contribution

to the United Nations.