I salute the
General Assembly on behalf of Iraq and congratulate
Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa on his election as President
of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. We
wish him and the Secretary-General every success
during the session. I would also like to thank the
Secretary-General for the vital role he has played in the
past years in supporting and enhancing the progress of
my country, something for which we in Iraq are grateful
and proud.
Fourteen years ago, heads of State and Government
committed themselves to the fulfilment of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015,
focusing on issues that are now still vital, foremost
among which are social and economic development, the
protection of international peace and security, the end of
the arms race, disarmament, elimination of weapons of
mass destruction (WMDs) — whose very name incites
fear in everyone — fighting terrorism and widespread
organized crime, guaranteeing human rights and the
effective coordination of humanitarian assistance
efforts, and promoting justice and international law.
In that context, we would like to remind the General
Assembly of our very bitter memory and experience as
victims of WMDs in Halabja, the peaceful Kurdish city
that was attacked by chemical weapons in 1988 at the
hands of the dictatorial regime then in power.
Next year, we will celebrate the seventieth
anniversary of the founding of the United Nations as an
Organization that represents international legitimacy.
That occasion will allow us to express the value of the
Organization and its achievements. It will also be an
occasion to take up more initiatives to settle disputes
by peaceful means and promote human rights and
larger freedoms and equality for all. We will also be
celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth
World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, which
was a turning point in seeking to promote the rights
of women and curb all forms of violence to which they
are exposed. We need to promote efforts to protect
our planet from pollution and create a sound, clean
environment to fight the problems of poverty, illness
and illiteracy.
The success of political parties in Iraq in establishing,
a few weeks ago, a Government of national unity that
represents Iraqis every stripe was extremely important.
It is a Government that everyone feels represents them.
Its programme responds to their aspirations and hopes
to move forward with their provinces into another era
of stability, internal progress and rebuilding. It is a
Government that seeks to build friendly relationships
in the region based on understandings that guarantee
peaceful coexistence among States of the region on the
basis of mutual interests and good-neighbourliness.
The establishment of the Government was a firm
response to a real danger that was stalking us all,
namely, the danger posed by Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL). That infamous and evil group
has launched international terrorist actions to attack
defenceless civilians. It has ushered in a new era and
brought terror to a new level. ISIL has been able to
occupy areas in more than one city in Iraq and Syria
and established a State based on hatred and rejection
of the Other. In the past few months, we have seen
how that heinous terrorist organization committed
crimes against humanity, such as killing and displacing
people, committing genocide and ethnic cleansing and
inflicting great suffering on all components of the Iraqi
people with its horrific crimes and massacres.
It has kidnapped women and sold them as enslaved
captives. It has destroyed religious shrines and houses
of worship, as well as cultural and historic monuments.
It has oppressed components of the Iraqi people on
the basis of their ethnic identities, like Turkmens
and Kurds, and targeted religious and confessional
minorities, including Yazidis, Christians and the
Shabak. We would like to thank the free people of the
world who have expressed their dismay, rejected those
crimes and stood in solidarity with the victims by
providing assistance.
That terrorist organization disposes of huge
financial and military assets. By declaring the so-
called Islamic Caliphate, ISIL has become a magnet
for militants and extremists in the Middle East and the
world, who have declared allegiance to that obscurantist
regime and started working under its command. Among
the most dangerous phenomena of that transformation
is the emergence of a new generation of terrorists who
have American, European or other citizenship.
The Iraqi Armed Forces, the Peshmerga and the
Popular Defence volunteers have been able to stop
the advance of ISIL and prevent its occupation of new
areas. We also succeeded in breaking the siege and
liberating cities that had been occupied by the terrorists
of that dangerous organization. The huge humanitarian
and military support that we received from United
Nations organizations, the United States, the States
of the European Union and other friendly States has
played a vital role in assisting us in confronting that
obscurantist terrorist group. We shall neever forget
the support we received against that group, which
confirmed to our people that we are not alone in our
fight against terrorism.
I would like here to express the gratitude of all
the people of Iraq and our Government’s appreciation
to all those who stood by us in our war against those
enemies of humankind. We would like to thank those
whose efforts made the Paris and Jeddah conferences a
success. And we would like to thank those who made
every effort to adopt a Security Council resolution
that guarantees solidarity and partnership in facing
terrorism and the challenges it poses to everyone.
As we meet in the Assembly today, hundreds of
thousands of displaced persons and refugees, who were
forced to leave their homes without taking with them
even the most basic possessions, look to us. Millions
of defenceless civilians who have been forced to live
under the oppression and tyranny of the terrorists of
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also look
to us. Their protection and needs are our common
responsibility. We call on the international community
to stand by our side in this war against terrorism
and to support our efforts and those of international
organizations and friendly countries in alleviating the
suffering of refugees, who hope someday to return to
their homes and to get rid of ISIS.
ISIS is a transnational and intercontinental
organization. We reiterate here that eliminating it can
be achieved only by forming a unified global front to
take measures to fight the takfiri approach and dry
up its connected financial, ideological, organizational
and military resources. We in Iraq are determined to
cleanse our land of ISIS. We would like to emphasize
that eliminating terrorism in Iraq will be an important
step in protecting our region and in ridding the world
of that danger.
Here we welcome Security Council resolution 2170
(2014), adopted in August, which calls on Member
States to prevent the support, financing and arming
of ISIS terrorists, the Nusra Front and other entities
related to Al-Qaida to prevent such flows into Iraq. We
should also like to commend the Human Rights Council
for its resolution condemning ISIS and establishing a
fact-finding commission to investigate crimes against
humanity committed by that group against all Iraqis.
In the context of the international response to
terrorism, and while we stress the importance of
consolidating the value and culture of peace and
coexistence in countries with multi-ethnic and
multi-confessional societies, we in Iraq call for
institutionalizing such a responsible position at the
United Nations. Such institutions must be tasked
with developing and operationalizing international
solidarity, using all the means available to fight
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and to rid
the world of its evils. We also believe that the time has
come to work collectively within individual countries
and with all countries in the region so that we can
defuse tension about our security and achieve national
understanding that contributes to limiting the space
available to terrorism, which typically lives off conflict
and strife. The meetings held in Jeddah, Paris and New
York and the statements, declarations and resolutions
adopted have sent important messages to the Iraqi
people. We hope that all of them will be translated into
practical measures.
In the Middle East, it hurts us to see the recent
suffering of the fraternal Palestinian people in Gaza
and other Palestinian territories. We therefore renew
our call on the international community to honour
its commitment to the Palestinian people and exert
concerted efforts to restore peace and return to the
negotiations table in order to end the conflict and
achieve lasting peace and security. For our brothers in
Yemen and Libya, we hope for stability and the end of
the threats of terrorism and extremism. We also wish
success and progress on the democratic path chosen
by the Libyan and Yemeni peoples. We hope that the
fraternal Syrian people will be able to overcome the
country’s dilemma. We hope that Syrians will unite in
their efforts to arrive at a political solution that ends
the bloodshed and preserves life. We also hope that
such a solution will help neighbourly Syria to achieve
democracy, peace and security in our region. Continued
tension in those hotbeds in our region will only fuel
extremism and extremist obscurantist ideology. That
makes us all want to work together to expedite a search
for solutions to the problems that contributes to creating
a humanitarian environment based on civilization,
culture and freedom.
With regard to Ukraine, we express our concern
about the dangerous escalation of the situation. We
believe that the international community cannot allow
any exacerbation of the conflict, with the ensuing dire
consequences for civilians, whether they have been
displaced or are forced to live in conflict zones.
Iraq notes the results achieved by the Open
Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals.
The Group’s recommendations in its report (A/67/941,
annex) constitute an important step and deserve our
appreciation. We truly value the efforts they have
made to arrive at its conclusions. However, the issue
of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations does
not occupy the space it deserves in the report. It should
have been incumbent upon the Group to address that
challenge as an objective on its own and to look into
its core, manifestations, causes, repercussions and the
ways to address them.
Throughout this era, humankind has been able
to work to promote human partnership and enhance
prospects for peace, freedom, human rights, prosperity
and security. I stand before the Assembly today as a
representative of a country that was enervated by terror
for over a decade. On behalf of the millions of families
of martyrs, orphans and the bereaved, I address the
Assembly to stress that we have no other option but to
defeat ISIS everywhere. With will, determination and
vision, we look forward to a future in which we can
liberate our societies from the risks that continue to
threaten us.