Today, I am honoured as I
congratulate you, Madam President, on your election
as the first Arab woman to ever preside over this body,
hoping that this heralds a new era of better
understanding of women’s aspirations and Arab causes.
I would also like to thank the Secretary-General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, for all that he has done for Lebanon
and for the cause of peace in the region and the world
as a whole.
I stand before the Assembly representing a
terribly scarred country, a country whose ordeal is well
known to members — my ravaged country, Lebanon.
From 12 July through 14 August, my country was
subjected to a barbarous aggression and to a rarely seen
campaign of savage dismemberment, when hundreds of
fighter jets emptied their loads of heavy and banned
bombs, targeting mostly civilians, killing and maiming
thousands, and destroying everything that made
Lebanon a viable State. Obviously, this was a
premeditated Israeli “sentence” to destroy my country
and everything it stood for, it having been blessed and
termed by His Holiness Pope John Paul II a “unique
message to humanity,” that we can live together. This
aggression became even more cruel when it won the
tacit approbation of certain great powers.
Regrettably, the Security Council looked
powerless in its attempts to stop the slaughter of
Lebanon’s children and protect the peace in Lebanon
and the Middle East. It took over a month and
numerous calls for an immediate ceasefire for all those
concerned to finally force a mere cessation of
hostilities, which is yet to become a formal and final
ceasefire.
It becomes self-evident for us to question the
credibility of the United Nations in light of the
Secretary-General’s acknowledgment that the delays in
adopting Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) did
indeed harm its credibility. Moreover, we cannot but
have serious doubts as to this Organization’s ability to
safeguard world peace when its resolutions are
subjected to the vagaries of a very few world powers.
Today I ask: How many children, like the one in
the photograph that I am holding up, will die because
nobody does anything for them? How many children
was this evil, vengeful machine of destruction
supposed to have killed, before the world community
decided to respond in defence of a “rightful” cause?
Allow us to ask these questions, as we are filled with a
deep sense of grief, when scores of our fallen citizens
are still beneath the rubble.
Let me reassure the Assembly that this savagery
did not weaken our people’s resolve nor shake its
resilience as it rallied around its army and Government
and embraced its national resistance, whose men faced
occupation forces with epic valour, preventing their
advance, and presenting Lebanon with yet another
victory, in the name of justice and dignity.
While we stand under the United Nations
umbrella to warn the world of the dire consequences
we shall all face when the very foundations of this
world body are shaken, it is also time to ask Israel,
which owes its very existence to a United Nations
resolution, to finally abide by past and recent
resolutions.
As of 14 August this year, Lebanon has once
again, without a shadow of a doubt, reasserted the fact
that it is a nation that respects its commitments, while
it implements international resolutions and proceeds to
deploy 15,000 Lebanese army soldiers on the border
between Lebanon and Israel — while Israel continues
its daily breaches of Security Council resolution 1701
(2006), having imposed a humiliating siege on
Lebanon, and refusing to withdraw from the Lebanese
territory in the Shaba’a farms sector, whose liberation
remains Lebanon’s sacred right and duty. To this day,
Israel continues to treat the people of Lebanon as
hostages, kidnapping at will scores of its citizens, in a
flagrant breach of that resolution.
Finally, Israel refuses to surrender to the United
Nations the maps showing thousands of mines it left
behind on Lebanese territory, while the case and fate of
Lebanon’s prisoners in Israel remains very ambiguous,
and no clear resolution of their ordeal is addressed
anywhere.
Today, for the sake of peace, the world
community is called upon to save Security Council
resolution 1701 (2006) from oblivion, a fate that
characterized scores of previous resolutions.
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Here, on behalf of a grateful country, I solemnly
salute the fallen soldiers of peace who will hence share
their obituary with that of our brave army soldiers and
of our valiant resistance fighters, victims of prohibited
weaponry, first tested by Israel on our soil and subject
to an international investigation. We are hopeful that
this time the world community will allow the
investigation to reach its natural conclusion. This will
constitute a clear indictment of Israel for its recurring
violations of international conventions and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We also hope that the United States will not
resort to its unfailing veto, thus allowing for the
indictment of Israel’s actions in sympathy for the
thousands of innocent civilians who were killed and
maimed by the “smart”, cluster and phosphorus bombs,
and those laced with depleted uranium.
Inspired by the principles and treaties of the
United Nations, Lebanon retains the right of action to
prosecute Israel before the competent bodies, most
notably this Assembly, or the International Criminal
Court, and to request the appropriate reparations for all
the catastrophes Israel has inflicted on Lebanon.
I ask the Assembly today to stand by my country,
as that will be recorded as a just and rightful stance. I
also call upon it to differentiate between he who
defends his country against Israeli aggression and
occupation, and who strives to liberate his countrymen
from decades of unlawful imprisonment, and those
elements that perpetrate acts of wanton slaughter
against their countrymen and others equally. I remind
the Assembly that Lebanon’s experience with the
scourge of terror goes back a long way, and has taken a
very heavy toll on its armed forces.
The most recent aggression against Lebanon has
left this small country terribly scarred, afflicted with
thousands of dead and wounded, and a toll of
destruction including several thousand housing units
and hundreds of bridges, ports, airports and factories.
And my message is: the will of our people to live and
move forward has proved to be much stronger than
defeat and despair. In record time, the people of
Lebanon launched a campaign of reconstruction, made
even more successful by instant comforting gestures of
goodwill from many friends, at home and abroad. With
such overwhelming support and assistance Lebanon
will beat all the odds by achieving a stellar rebirth,
thereby scoring another point in favour of humanity.
There is ample talk today of the need to reach a
permanent and comprehensive peace in the Middle
East, which Lebanon has stressed for decades.
However, we are quick to point out that no such peace
can be achieved in the Middle East without addressing
the root cause of instability there, namely, the Arab-
Israeli dispute and its core issue, Palestine.
Despite the horrid events in Lebanon, a window
of opportunity has presented itself, and it should be
fully exploited in order to reinvigorate the Middle East
peace initiative, founded on the Arab peace initiative
adopted during the Beirut Arab Summit of 2002.
The Arab peace initiative remains the suitable
means to achieve a permanent, comprehensive and just
peace, because it simply calls for the implementation
of all United Nations resolutions as they pertain to the
withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab lands, and
for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.
Only such a settlement will be capable of affording
Lebanon and the neighbouring countries the stability
and security they long for and will give Israel a sense
of security — something it has failed to obtain through
sheer force and aggression. Moreover, this should put
an end to the haemorrhage in the Palestinian territories
and foster moderation where despair has bred
extremism and violence, most notably in Iraq, where it
is vital for all of us to help that tortured Arab nation
preserve its territorial integrity and the unity of its
people.
Today there is incessant talk of a new Middle
East as a harbinger of better things to come, and this
prompts us to ask the following question. Is what we
have witnessed in Lebanon and continue to see in
Palestine and Iraq conducive to an environment of
peace and tranquillity? Is this much heralded new
Middle East attainable only through widespread strife,
unimaginable bloodshed, sedition and oppression?
Our conception of a new Middle East is one that
is coherent with United Nations resolutions, and that is
in concurrence with the principles of justice and right
as stipulated in those resolutions. Our idea of a new
Middle East is one where a comprehensive peace
settlement becomes reality, guaranteeing the rights of
all; where Palestinian refugees return home, as
stipulated in resolution 194 (III), which comes long
before Security Council resolution 1701 (2006), and
therefore are not resettled in host countries; and where
prisoners return to their loved ones.
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This is the only way to attain a stable Middle
East. All else will plunge our region into further
upheaval and bloodshed.
Should our conception of peace in the Middle
East become reality, I assure the Assembly that the
need for conferences, studies and discussions of
terrorism will become moot. Should this happen in
tandem with serious attempts to combat poverty and
sustain acceptable levels of development in areas of
need, this will certainly dry up the pools where
terrorism draws its human and financial support.
I have recently read one of your statements,
Madam President, in which you emphasize that
overhauling the United Nations will be one of your top
priorities. I commend you for that position, because no
one appreciates the need for world peace more than the
people of the Middle East, as we recognize that the
preservation of world peace requires a United Nations
capable of taking decisions and competent to see them
through.
Here, I would like to reiterate what I said from
this very rostrum only last year:
“The core values of a democratic and just world
are best served by enhancing the capabilities of
the United Nations and its instruments, and by
reinforcing in-house democratic values.”
(A/60/PV.13, p.1)
I believed that this institution should remain a
sanctuary of world consciousness and “the primary
defender of such human values as freedom, justice and
peace.” (ibid)
Perhaps the reforms that have been carried out so
far, such as the establishment of a Human Rights
Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, will
constitute the necessary incentives for achieving a
United Nations capable of safeguarding right and
justice.
Taking into consideration current trends in world
affairs, I propose to the General Assembly the creation
of a commission leading to laying the foundations of a
charter of the rights of nations, a charter equal in
importance to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, a charter imposing on Member States — all
States — a code of conduct founded on the principles
of justice and the rule of law.
I come here from a country riddled with scars,
rising from the rubble and ashes of aggression, to
speak of justice. I do not pretend to pontificate from
the helm of a tank. Lebanon remains a peace-loving
nation, and it extends its hand to all those who share its
peaceful vision, founded on a just settlement and
extracting as such the seeds of oppression and
violence. We trust that the forces of good will prevail
in the end, because its flames burn in the heart of the
righteous and because the sounds of jubilation will
undoubtedly prevail over the beating of war drums and
the sibilating of hate and violence.