United Arab Emirates

It gives me pleasure, on behalf of the delegation of the United Arab Emirates, to extend to you, Madam President, and to your fraternal country, the Kingdom of Bahrain, our heartfelt congratulations on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. We are confident that your wide experience will enable you to deal wisely and competently with the issues on our agenda, and we wish you every success. We also take this opportunity to commend your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for the skilful manner in which he managed the work of the sixtieth session, and to thank Secretary- General Kofi Annan for his outstanding efforts, which have significantly contributed to strengthening the role of this international organization in addressing the challenges the world has faced during his term of office. In spite of all the expectations that we hoped would be fulfilled in the areas of establishing peace and collective security, development, strengthening human rights and the rule of law, and reform of the United Nations, we meet today amid extremely serious security, political and economic conditions that have resulted in increasing poverty and epidemics and have prevented the sustainable development mechanisms from achieving the desired development goals of the 2005 Summit. Instead of intensifying our efforts to strengthen international relations and enhance positive investment in economic globalization, we had to direct our efforts towards finding temporary solutions for the grave security threats facing our world today in many regions. The major weakness demonstrated by the performance of some bodies of this international organization, especially in those entrusted with maintaining international peace and security, requires a reconsideration of the ways to reform its main 06-52879 28 structures and working methods, particularly for the Security Council. Most recent events have proved its inability to take the immediate and effective measures needed to stop acts of aggression and to end occupation. Therefore, as we study the proposals by the Secretary-General for developing the work of the Organization, we must ensure that reform is based on the principles of equality among States in rights and duties in order to ensure that developing and small countries are increasingly and effectively represented in the Security Council in accordance with the principle of equitable geographical distribution. It is also necessary to strengthen the working methods of the Security Council to ensure that it does not infringe upon the competencies of the Secretariat, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, so that the performance and effectiveness of those bodies can be strengthened and increased. The United Arab Emirates — which collaborates with the sisterly countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the League of Arab States and other groups in supporting all possible diplomatic and mediation efforts aimed at containing the hotbeds of tension and conflicts in the Middle East region, including the Arabian Gulf — reiterates the importance of resolving differences through peaceful means and of strengthening confidence-building measures based on the principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States and non-interference in their internal affairs. All this falls under our common responsibility to maintain the requirements of regional and international peace, security and stability. Therefore, we ask the Islamic Republic of Iran to demonstrate its goodwill towards finding a just and lasting settlement for its occupation of the three United Arab Emirates islands, Greater and Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, by responding to our country’s repeated initiatives, which were endorsed by the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council, the Council of the League of Arab States and the international community. Those initiatives call for initiating direct and serious negotiations on this issue or referring it to the International Court of Justice for legal arbitration. We support the right of countries to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We optimistically look forward to continuing the Iranian- European talks on Iran’s nuclear question in order to reach a lasting and peaceful settlement and to ensure that the safety and security of the peoples and countries of the region are not exposed to any threat, danger or unnecessary new confrontations. We also stress that the international community must deal with this question with utmost transparency so as to ensure the implementation of all relevant resolutions of the United Nations, in particular those calling for the establishment of a zone free from weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf. That makes it incumbent upon Israel to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to subject all of its nuclear facilities to the IAEA safeguards regime. The United Arab Emirates supports the political process in Iraq and efforts for its reconstruction, and hopes that the efforts of the Iraqi Government will lead to achieving national unity, consolidating security and stability in Iraq, and implementing the recommendations of the Abu Dhabi Declaration and the New York conference on the International Compact for the Reconstruction of Iraq. We also reaffirm our full support for all regional and international measures to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, as it constitutes a grave threat to the security and sovereignty of States and causes unjustified depletion of civilian lives and properties. We also support international efforts aimed at convening an international conference to define this phenomenon, address its causes and set the standards for differentiating between terrorism and the right of people to self-determination. As we all strive to create a suitable environment for promoting dialogue among civilizations and strengthening religious tolerance, we heard with regret and surprise the recent statements by Pope Benedict XVI, which gave an opportunity to the extremists to deepen the gap of intolerance and to raise doubts about the intentions of others. That makes it incumbent on us to avoid repeating such statements in future in order to promote further understanding between religions and civilizations. We are deeply concerned at the continued inability of the international community to solve the Palestinian question and establish peace in the Middle East. That has encouraged Israel to continue its occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Sheba’a farms in Lebanon and the Syrian Golan, and to repeat its aggressions on various levels. Therefore, we urge the United Nations to respond today to the recent 29 06-52879 initiative of the League of Arab States, which calls upon the international organization to play an effective role in reviving the peace process in the Middle East and resume direct negotiations on all tracks, in accordance with resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative. We also affirm that consolidation of peace and stability in the Middle East region cannot be achieved through military power or the continued and deliberate destruction of the infrastructure in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, but through compelling Israel to ensure its full compliance with international resolutions, including the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and the release of Palestinian funds and the thousands of Palestinian detainees and prisoners. Israel is further requested to open the crossing points to secure delivery of emergency humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, to remove settlements and the separation wall and to withdraw fully from all the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, so that the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital, can be declared. We welcome the considerable efforts by the Lebanese Government to extend its control throughout its national territories, with the support of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. In this regard we demand that the international community intensify its pressures on Israel to compel it to fulfil its legal obligations, as provided in Security Council resolution 1701 (2006), including its full respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, handing over maps of landmines and entering into negotiations on the exchange of prisoners. We also affirm the importance of doubling the international assistance directed to the reconstruction of Lebanon. As for the Sudan — and following up the circumstances relating to Security Council resolution 1706 (2006) — we had hoped that the Sudan would have been given sufficient time to resolve the Darfur question internally. We declare our support for the efforts of the Sudanese Government to find a lasting solution to this question. We hope that the United Nations and the African Union will continue their positive role in this regard, in conformity with the Arab League’s efforts, in order to maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the Sudan. We also call for strengthening of the efforts and endeavours to reconcile political differences and disputes in regions such as Somalia, Afghanistan, other African countries and troubled regions of the world in order to contain tensions and conflicts in those regions and assist their peoples to realize their aspirations towards permanent peace, stability and prosperity. The United Arab Emirates, which incorporated the Millennium Development Goals in its national development policy and has come a long way in the process of achieving economic and human development, has extended generous assistance to many poor and affected countries. In this regard, the United Arab Emirates would like to stress that with the ongoing problems of poverty, infectious diseases and unemployment, in addition to other economic, social and environmental problems, the international community must develop a firm and effective international mechanism that ensures a continuous flow of assistance to developing countries so as to enable them to improve their living conditions and build their national economies. It is incumbent upon the advanced States, especially the Group of Eight, to fulfil their commitments as agreed at international conferences, especially in easing the onerous commercial conditions imposed on developing countries’ trade, on their efforts to attract foreign capital and investment and on their use of advanced technology for peaceful purposes, in order to avoid marginalizing those countries and to ensure better participation for them in international trade. Finally, we hope that our deliberations on the agenda items during this session will have a positive outcome that will contribute to addressing the critical issues we face today, and that they will enhance our common efforts to create a world based on the principles of the rule of law, justice, tolerance and peace.