Yemen

At the outset, I would like to congratulate the President of the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on her election. It is a source of pride for us that an Arab woman from brotherly Bahrain is presiding over the session. I would also like to thank Mr. Jan Eliasson, President of the Assembly at its sixtieth session, for his valuable and tireless efforts in the conduct of our work and for the positive results he has achieved for our Organization, particularly with regard to United Nations reform. I would also like to warmly welcome 51 06-52885 the Republic of Montenegro as the 192nd Member of our international family. I am pleased that this meeting coincides with a new democratic achievement in my country, Yemen. Today, 20 September, the second direct presidential election and elections for local councils have taken place competitively in a free and fair atmosphere. This democratic exercise demonstrates the maturity of the people of Yemen and reflects our country’s commitment to democracy as a peaceful means of sharing power and popular participation in development and economic and social reform. The recent developments in Lebanon and Palestine include the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure owing to aggression by the Israeli war machine — which has caused the deaths of countless innocent civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly — threats to murder or assassinate the leadership of Lebanon and Palestine, extrajudicial and other practices. These all run counter to the United Nations Charter, the rules of international law and international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention. The massacres committed by the Israeli war machine against Lebanese and Palestinian civilians — particularly the Qana II massacre, whose victims were mostly children under the age of 12 and which was witnessed by the entire world — have evoked feelings of denunciation and condemnation by all people. This requires a firmer stance in the face of Israeli policies based on violence and State terrorism. It is even more regrettable that the United Nations stands by and watches helplessly while the Lebanese people are subjected to devastation and destruction caused by Israeli aggression over 34 days. We would like to reiterate that the implementation of Security Council 1701 (2006) should not undermine the territorial integrity of Lebanon and should not lead to sectarian divisions among the people of that country. It should also mandate that Israel compensate Lebanon for all the destruction. Israeli practices, such as assassinations of Palestinian individuals, detention of the President of the Palestinian Parliament, the Deputy Prime Minister or other Ministers, are a perfect example of Israel’s total disregard for international law, human rights, or agreements signed with the Palestinian Authority. This makes it incumbent upon the Security Council to firmly deal with such Israeli aggression, to demand the release of all Palestinian leaders under detention and in Israeli prisons, and to deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict neutrally and responsibly. It is only thus that the Middle East can enjoy stability and Israel can enjoy security. In order to achieve a just and comprehensive peace, Arab countries have requested that the Security Council consider the Arab-Israeli conflict file responsibly and fairly in order to put an end to the conflict and to spare the region further wars and conflicts. If the Security Council fails to do that, then it will bear the responsibility for continuing the conflict in the region, with the attendant suffering and dire consequences for all parties concerned. From this rostrum, we call upon the international community to stand beside the elected Iraqi Government, to help it spread its authority over its territory, to put an end to violence and interference by external parties in the internal affairs of Iraq, to respect the territorial integrity of Iraq and to put an end to its occupation. With regard to the Sudan, we reiterate our support for the efforts by the Sudanese Government to bring peace to Darfur, in accordance with the security plan presented to the Security Council. The decision to extend the mandate of the African Union forces until the end of December of this year is welcome. Provision of adequate logistics and increasing the number of these peacekeeping forces will enable them to play their role. The dispatch of any international forces without the agreement of the Government of the Sudan constitutes a violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter. With regard to Somalia, Yemen would like to commend the Arab-African efforts for conciliation between the Transitional Somali Government and the Union of Islamic Shariah Courts, and the outcome of the talks held at Khartoum under the sponsorship of the League of Arab States from 1 to 5 September. We call upon all international parties to provide support to the Somali Government so as to enable it to reconstruct the country and re-establish State institutions. Yemen has always been a partner in the conciliation process and supports all efforts by all parties. Yemen emphasizes that any external interference in Somalia’s affairs could lead to violence and confrontation in the Horn of Africa. 06-52885 52 Yemen underlines the right of all countries to possess nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. We have reiterated our commitment to the General Assembly declaration to make the Middle East a region free of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and to compel Israel to comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to guarantee stability in the region and to avoid a nuclear race. Given our concern for the promotion of trust among all countries seeking to develop their nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, we call upon all to cooperate in the creation of a joint entity for nuclear research for peaceful purposes, in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Yemen has reiterated its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We believe that this phenomenon, which is alien to our societies and to the religion of Islam, can be attributed to many factors, including a feeling of lack of international justice, the spread of misleading judgements and decrees, and misconceptions of others based on race or religion. Such factors have undermined trust among people and have led to the spread of extremism and terrorism. An international conference should be convened to reach an agreement on an accurate definition of terrorism and to deal with its root causes, such as poverty, unemployment, lack of education and the absence of international justice. A distinction should also be made between terror against innocent civilians and the legitimate right of people to resist foreign occupation. The Republic of Yemen would like to reiterate its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 and to the Monterrey Consensus. We are convinced that the mobilization of financial resources for development and their effective use in developing countries and in countries with economies in transition are essential for the realization of a genuine global partnership for development. We would like to stress here the need to grant developing countries greater freedom in the development and management of their development programmes, in accordance with their national priorities and their special situations, in conformity with international strategies for development. Based on our belief that the individual should be the focus of development and its ultimate objective, we have given utmost priority to the MDGs and have mainstreamed them in our policies and five-year development plan, 2006-2010, as well as integrated them into the economic, environmental and social aspects of our plans. We have thus adopted a series of measures and actions for reform in the financial, administrative and judicial fields, the most recent of which is the total separation of the judiciary power from the executive power and the appointment of an independent chief judge of the country’s judicial authority. We have also involved civil society organizations, which are key partners in economic and political development and progress, and have cooperated with donor countries, specialized agencies and international organizations in the implementation of our second five-year plan for the alleviation of poverty. That plan is based on small projects and on the expansion of technical education, the provision of basic services, the promotion of good governance and the fight against corruption. It is an ambitious plan that we believe requires international support in order to achieve its objective and result in a qualitative leap in human development in Yemen. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we must review the system of international relations to base it more on trust, dialogue and cooperation. We all are in agreement that democracy and the enjoyment of freedoms are at the core of desired reform, and here I should like to stress that the reform of national and of international policies are two sides of the same coin. Democracy in international relations helps to promote democracy in national policies and is a genuine motive for it. That requires that the United Nations itself be an example to follow in terms of the exercise of democracy. Thus reform and restructuring of the United Nations is required, as well as its revitalization and the restoration of its international standing and prestige, including through the expansion of the membership of the Security Council to include representation by all continents. That should be done in an equitable manner that guarantees representation by all cultures and civilizations and also assigns a more prominent role to the Economic and Social Council in elaborating international policies relating to economic and social issues and in the follow-up of their implementation. It should be done also in a manner that promotes international efforts to move 53 06-52885 development forward and assist developing countries to realize the MDGs. In conclusion, and on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Yemen, I should like to extend our thanks and deep appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his tireless and dedicated efforts in the conduct of the Organization during his two terms of office, working, patiently and diligently, in the service of humanity. I would like to wish him every success in his future endeavours.