Jordan

Permit me first to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the office of President of the General Assembly at its fifty- fourth session. I am fully confident that your experience and skills will bring the work of this session to a successful conclusion. Please permit me also to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to your predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, for his magnificent and distinguished stewardship, which made a success of the last session. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his wise leadership and outstanding work towards realizing and emphasizing the goals and principles of the United Nations and his tireless efforts to achieve peace, security and stability in the world. In the last few months of the second millennium, and as we bid farewell to it and await the dawning of the third millennium, this session of the General Assembly takes place at an important historic and symbolic moment, a moment of mixed emotions. We look back and see that mankind has achieved great things despite the serious suffering and pain that have marked the twentieth century. We look forward with great hope to entering a new era in which we shall build a more humanitarian world, in which nations will be able to live in true partnership, with a sense of belonging to this planet, in a more just and harmonious way. We shall have an enhanced ability to cope collectively with the major challenges that confront us and to respond to changes that require a long-range global vision. This will increase our ability to provide answers and solutions to the difficult questions and issues that face us. This historic moment is of particular importance in the life of Jordan, which was engulfed by grief a few months ago, when it was deprived of its great leader, the late King Hussein Ibn Talal — may God bless his soul. He had succeeded in turning Jordan from a small country with limited resources into an oasis of peace and stability in a region beset by disturbances and wars. This country has just begun a new era under the leadership of King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein. His Majesty has assumed the responsibility for continuing, with renewed vigour, to lead Jordan to progress and prosperity, as we look forward to ushering in the new century. He is committed also to Jordan’s continuing to make its important and essential contribution to the building of peace in the Middle East and to continuing to contribute generously at the international level. He strongly believes, as Jordan’s leaders have always believed, that our country belongs to 30 this international family. Jordan is committed to the Charter of the United Nations and to the principles of international law. Our late leader was a unique international leader, with an unflinching belief in the role of the United Nations and in the peaceful settlement of disputes. He expressed his belief in these principles by working all his life to bring about a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East based on international legitimacy. He did this out of his strong belief in human dignity, in people’s right to live free from all forms of injustice and despotism, and out of an awareness that human life is too precious to be wasted in confrontations and wars. Human beings have the right to lead free and dignified lives, channelling all their resources and energies towards achieving economic and social development and participating in building a prosperous and secure future for the generations to come. The life of our great leader who is, alas, no more, is the story of the building of modern Jordan. His exceptional contributions in the international arena were also a rare example of what can be achieved by a historic leader who believes in high moral principles and supreme virtues. Jordanians felt a deep sense of pride and appreciation when they saw the whole world — leaders and common people alike — standing side by side with them, sharing their grief at the loss of the creator of their renaissance and their modern State. They also felt a deep sense of trust and confidence in the strength and durability of their constitutional and institutional structures, which were built by the late leader of their country and have ensured a stable and successful beginning to the era of King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, in a way that has won the appreciation and respect of the world. Jordanians are rallying today behind their King and marching behind him on the road to realizing their hopes and aspirations. Jordan is beginning, under the leadership of King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, a new era with a firm commitment to following the same course that has distinguished and will continue to distinguish Jordanian policy at both the domestic and international levels. Over the past few months, Jordan has continued its efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East. This process had suffered over the past three years from foot-dragging leading to effective deadlock, all of which severely tested the confidence of the peoples of the region in the peace process as a whole. The result of last May’s parliamentary elections in Israel gave rise to new hopes of reviving this process and putting it back on track. The positive developments of the past few weeks show that the region stands now before a second historic opportunity to achieve peace on all tracks. We sincerely hope that the leaders of the region will seize this opportunity, live up to the expectations and aspirations of their peoples and not hesitate to take the bold decisions needed to bring the negotiations to fruition. The question of Palestine has been and will continue to be at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Middle East crisis. The establishment of peace in the region therefore requires, first and foremost, that a just solution should be reached to this question — a solution with which the peoples of the region will be satisfied and which they will if need be defend. Jordan has been calling throughout the past year for the Wye River Memorandum, which was arrived at with the unprecedented involvement and assistance of the late King Hussein, to be implemented. We have been consistently aware of the impact that implementation of the Memorandum would have on reactivating the peace process on all tracks, on establishing confidence and a spirit of partnership between the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships, and on re- establishing confidence in the peace process amongst the peoples of the region. The signing of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum has enhanced the prospects for implementing the Wye River Memorandum in a way that we hope will advance the final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis so that a settlement may be reached that would ensure that the Palestinian people realize their right to self-determination, including their right to establish an independent State on their national territory, with Al-Quds al-Sharif — Holy Jerusalem — as its capital. As King Abdullah II has emphasized, Jordan will continue to provide support for a successful conclusion of the negotiations. We are directly interested in their success because the issues on the agenda relate to our national interest, particularly the issues of the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Over the past 50 years, Jordan, more than any other party, has shouldered the burden of the refugee problem. This has put immense pressures on Jordan’s resources and economy, particularly given that every reduction in the services provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has placed additional burdens on Jordan. Direct expenditures by the Government of Jordan on services provided to the refugees in 1998 reached 4.75 times the amount spent by UNRWA on such services. Total expenditures incurred by the Government of Jordan equal the entire budget that UNRWA spends on 31 refugees in all its areas of operations throughout the Middle East. Jordan calls on the international community not to allow any reductions in the role of UNRWA or in its programmes until the refugee question has been resolved in accordance with international legitimacy — which would lead to the closing of this file in its entirety once and for all. Jordan also calls on the donor countries to continue their support for UNRWA to enable it to continue to discharge its responsibilities. With regard to the peace process on other tracks, Jordan believes that a comprehensive solution is a prerequisite for the establishment of peace in the region. Without such a solution, no settlement can be assured of durability. Jordan therefore strongly supports the efforts to reactivate negotiations on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks. It supports the demand by Syria and Lebanon that negotiations should be resumed from the point at which they stopped. The Jordanian leadership will spare no effort to help bring about a breakthrough in negotiations on both tracks. Hopes have been rising over the past few weeks that this can be achieved, particularly in view of Syria’s reaffirmation of its full commitment to work for the establishment of peace and of its concern for reviving the peace process and bringing it to its desired goal: the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement. There have also been a number of positive indicators from the Syrian Government and the Israeli Government has said that it is convinced of the crucial importance of reaching a peace agreement with Syria. While looking forward to these positive developments with great hopes, the peoples of the region earnestly desire that this historic opportunity should not be missed and that the efforts made will succeed in reaching a settlement whereby Syria and Lebanon will have their legitimate rights restored through Israel’s withdrawal from the Syrian Arab Golan Heights and from southern Lebanon in implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978). The peoples of the Middle East region have suffered unprecedented hardships because of the failure to reach a comprehensive, just and lasting peaceful settlement. Vast resources have been squandered on a useless arms race that failed to provide security for any of the parties. Today the peoples of the region look forward to real progress in the peace process — progress that will help create a climate conducive to an end to the arms race and to convincing the various parties that peace is the only option capable of providing security for all. It will also convince them to make the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction. This requires a commitment from all parties to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The issues of refugees, economic disparities and water, as well as the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, require effective regional cooperation and concrete international support. Without resolving the fundamental political aspects of the conflict, the region will continue to suffer from the consequences of non- cooperation in resolving these issues. Unless they are resolved, they themselves will escalate and create new hotbeds of conflict in the region. On the eastern flank of our region, the Iraqi people continue to suffer unprecedented hardships as a result of the continued economic sanctions. The price of these sanctions is paid by the Iraqi people in terms of their health, nutrition, education and prospects for progress. This poses serious future dangers for the region as a whole. Jordan therefore calls for ending this suffering by lifting the sanctions. It also calls for the implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, including those concerning the Kuwaiti prisoners of war and missing persons. It further calls upon the Security Council to conduct a comprehensive review that would lead to extricating Iraq from this situation and to affirm its position of upholding the territorial integrity of Iraq as one of the main pillars of regional security. Jordan’s geographical location between two extremely complex situations resulting from the consequences of the Middle East crisis in general and the lack of progress in the peace process during the past three years in particular, as well as the continued economic sanctions against Iraq for nine years, has subjected the Jordanian economy to tremendous pressures. Countries with capabilities and resources much greater than Jordan’s would have difficulty coping with them. Although Jordan is committed to implementing an integrated programme of reform and restructuring of its economy and to taking difficult and painful economic measures, the impact of these two situations makes it virtually impossible for Jordan to achieve acceptable levels of economic growth, and it continues to suffer a huge external debt. Viewing the real economic situation of Jordan and the challenges facing it without linking it to the regional 32 environment that affects it does not give a true picture of this situation. While Jordan is grateful for and appreciative of the international community’s support for Jordan’s efforts to cope with its enormous economic challenges, and its assistance to Jordan in playing its central role in maintaining stability in the region, Jordan would like the international community to have a better understanding of its economic problems. From this perspective, we view with special appreciation the final communiqué issued at the Summit meeting of the leaders of the industrialized nations in Cologne last June, which reflected political will to help Jordan and called for the consideration of reducing Jordan’s foreign debt-burden. We hope that the friendly creditor countries will take all possible measures to translate that political will into action, enabling Jordan to reduce its debt burden to a point that allows its economy to be revitalized and to achieve higher growth rates. The tragic situation the people of Kosovo were made to experience severely tested the ability of the international community, at the close of this century, to prevent the crimes of ethnic cleansing and the violation of basic human rights from being committed in a most despicable, racist manner. This matter raises extremely serious and complex questions about the role of the United Nations and the limits that separate the right of States to assert their sovereignty without committing mass crimes against helpless unarmed civilians. There are lessons to be drawn from this bitter human experience. On the one hand, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s ability to put an end to the criminal acts has given clear evidence to all those who harbour thoughts of rebelling against international law and of committing similar acts that they should not presume that their domestic military strength ensures absolute dominance, including violation of human rights. Upholding the principle of sovereignty should not overturn the obligation to observe human rights and international humanitarian law. On the other hand, as Members of this international Organization, we must look into finding mechanisms that ensure the enhancement of the United Nations and its ability to be the framework that expresses the determination of the international community to prevent such crimes, and to be the umbrella for the coordination and organization of collective international action to achieve that goal. That situation has demonstrated the need for formulating a new international order for the twenty-first century, in which all peoples can enjoy respect for their diversity and can participate in the formation of a world conscience that ensures their coexistence. Continued progress by peoples in adopting democracy as a way of life makes it urgent to strengthen democracy within the international system. Since the United Nations is the backbone of the world system, it must evolve in such a way that reflects the new realities in the international arena. Our international community has an urgent need to pause for a real review of the international situation in all its dimensions: political, security, economic, environmental and human rights. We hope that the world summit to be held next year will provide an opportunity for such a review. While we see that many issues and crises considered by the United Nations remain to be resolved, this does not necessarily mean failure on the part of the United Nations as much as it demonstrates the importance of an existing political will to resolve them. Furthermore, the challenges of globalization pose new kinds of global problems, which require harmonious global solutions to the challenges facing developed societies, such as terrorism, drug-trafficking and pollution of the environment, and to the challenges that threaten the developing countries, such as debt, unemployment and economic recession. Such solutions must also strengthen the ability of the developing countries to benefit from the opportunities provided by globalization and to avoid its negative effects by preventing a broadening of the inequalities that lie between them and the developed countries. The persistence of these inequalities will cause the developing countries to remain on the periphery of globalization. Despite the magnitude of the challenges that continue to confront us as we begin the proceedings of this last session of the General Assembly in this century, we should not overlook the many positive steps that have been made recently. The adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court was a particularly important measure taken towards confronting and preventing the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity from escaping punishment. I must also mention the successful conclusion of the first Conference of States Parties on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and On Their Destruction. Such accomplishments contribute to strengthening human security and consolidating the commitment to 33 human rights. They also provide examples of the potential for activating international cooperation in many areas, including the promotion of international commitment to condemning and prohibiting terrorism. In a different context, Jordan welcomes the agreement reached by Libya and the United Nations on the Lockerbie issue. It also commends the strenuous efforts made by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, which contributed to the reaching of an agreement. It calls for the complete lifting of sanctions against Libya, after the removal of the reasons for such sanctions and following the extradition of the two suspects for trial. On the matter of regional crises, we appeal to our friends in Pakistan and India to resort to peaceful means to resolve their conflict and to refrain from any escalation that would seriously endanger the peace of the Indian subcontinent and the whole world. As for the dispute between the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan calls for, as it always has, the resolution of this dispute through dialogue based upon mutual respect. It also hopes that Iran will heed the United Arab Emirates’ request to enter into dialogue with a specific timetable and agenda, in order to reach a solution that conforms to international legitimacy, which denies the admissibility of occupation of territory by force. Jordan attaches special importance to maintaining a dialogue between religions and civilizations, in order to bring closer together the views of the various beliefs, religions and civilizations. This will also create a common base for developing humanitarian thought, which calls for peace and cooperation rather than confrontation. These efforts have resulted in creating a greater awareness at the domestic and international levels of the goals of this dialogue. We hope that the United Nations will promote, through its specialized agencies, programmes of dialogue in the various fields of human activity and at all national, regional and international levels. The international community is called upon to use dialogue to combat dangerous discriminatory practices, which we see today, such as Islamophobia. Islam is being subjected to a severe and unjustified attack, which attempts, intentionally or unintentionally, to establish a linkage between Islam and those extremist and terrorist movements that hurt Islam and Muslims by using religion as a tool. Discrimination and arbitrary practices against Muslim populations in various countries are only a result of extremist thinking, far removed from the principles of civilized behaviour and humanity. The international community must consider how to confront this phenomenon of Islamophobia in order to prevent its proliferation. Natural disasters, which have afflicted many countries recently, remind us of a basic fact, which is that we all face phenomena and challenges that do not discriminate between us on the basis of race, religion, wealth or geographical location. While expressing sympathy to our friends in Turkey and Greece, which have been hit by earthquakes recently, and our admiration for the positive sentiments they have expressed to each other in their suffering, we realize that confronting natural dangers and disasters, like confronting other challenges, requires a sincere political will to take collective action in order to preserve the planet, to which we all belong equally.