At the outset,
I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on your election
to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
second session. I wish you every success in your
mission. I would like also to thank your predecessor,
Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for successfully
presiding over the previous session.
I would like further to pay tribute to Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon, who has assumed his post at a
critical moment in which the Organization is facing
several serious challenges that threaten international
peace and security.
The current session has begun at a time when
more than one fifth of the world’s population of
Muslims are observing mandatory fasting during the
month of Ramadan. We were eager to participate in the
activities of this session being held in this holy month
in order to stress our conviction in the need to
contribute to promoting coexistence among nations and
to raise an important issue related to the purposes of
the international community with respect to the future
of peace and progress.
Given its great significance, I would like to refer
to Security Council resolution 1770 (2007), on the
subject of Iraq, which was adopted on 10 August 2007.
That resolution has partly restored to the United
Nations its rightful role in addressing Iraq’s tragedy,
after it was proven that it is no longer possible for that
matter to remain confined to a single State or to a
coalition of States of converging interests.
The world’s major conflicts have become far too
big for a single Power to handle them on its own.
Responsibility for addressing them should therefore be
placed with the United Nations, as it constitutes the
political embodiment of the international community’s
principles, laws and broad aspirations to peacebuilding
and to achieving progress on the basis of the rule of
law and the will of those upholding its authority. If the
role of the United Nations is to be more effective, its
structure must be reformed to adapt to the changes that
have taken place in the world since the adoption of the
Charter of the United Nations, in 1945.
While the current situation in Iraq requires that
the international community assume its
responsibilities, the main responsibility remains with
the leaders of the whole Iraqi people, who are
primarily responsible for hammering out a formula of
national reconciliation that ensures justice, peace and
security and preserves the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Iraq.
The international order has witnessed both “cold”
and actual wars. Although real wars are humanly
unacceptable, cold wars are psychologically unbearable
because they inevitably lead to proxy conflicts, which
are incompatible with a world in which the forces of
enlightenment and the elements of understanding
among nations and cultures have strived in an
unprecedented manner.
The work of the United Nations in the areas of
development should be accorded high priority, given
the close links that exist between development,
security and peace. We were indeed pleased that the
General Assembly approved the initiative of the State
of Qatar to host the first follow-up conference to the
International Conference on Financing for
Development, which is to be held at Doha during the
second half of 2008.
One of the major challenges that we all have to
address pertains to the protection of the environment.
In addition to the destructive effects of climate change,
the environment is subject to degradation and
pollution, which threaten human life as well as that of
all living creatures. Such a situation requires both our
cooperation and concerted efforts by industrialized and
developing countries alike to find new approaches and
visions leading to effective short-, mid- and long-term
solutions. In that connection, I would like to
underscore my country’s support for any measures
aimed at protecting the environment and achieving
sustainable development.
International aid is one of the areas for promoting
international partnership. The volume of aid should
therefore be increased and its efficiency improved by
easing the conditions on which it is granted so as to
promote the national development strategies of
recipient countries. In that regard, we are concerned
about the decline in 2006 of the real value of official
development assistance. Donors should make
additional efforts to double the assistance provided to
sub-Saharan African countries and to promote the
development agenda of the United Nations.
Moreover, given the important, major role played
by global trade in financing development, a successful
conclusion to the Doha Round would provide new
opportunities to promote multilateral trade
transactions. While we are concerned about the
deadlock in the ongoing consultations on the
implementation of the Doha Development Agenda, we
hope that we will be able to put that phase behind us.
We also hope that all parties concerned, especially
developed countries, will show the sufficient flexibility
to reach mutually beneficial, practical results.
I have not come to this session to present issues
or crises related to my country or the Arab world,
although some of them have reached proportions
constituting human tragedies. I have come here to raise
broader issues, as I am convinced that all Arab and
Muslim issues are related to the problems of the world
as a whole. In the light of a global understanding of the
new phase in international progress an
understanding that emphasizes the belief in the need to
resort to the collective international will, as embodied
by the United Nations, its leadership and system, and
in the set of principles on which the Organization’s
Charter is based Arab and Muslim causes would not
be the only ones to benefit from it; it would also
benefit the entire world. Just causes are always
protected by the principles of the law, and the law
provides their true guarantee, as well as powerful
support.